Ripple Tank Lite vs Pic2Mag
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ripple Tank Lite
Simulate wave phenomena like interference, diffraction, and refraction using a digital ripple tank. Create waves with your finger and observe various wave behaviors, including resonance and the Doppler effect.
- Wave simulation
- Finger wave creation
- Interference observation
- Diffraction examples
- Refraction simulation
- Resonance and Doppler effect
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A simulation of a ripple tank, or wave tank. Make waves with your finger, or view examples including such wave phenomena as interference, diffraction (single slit, double slit, etc.), refraction, resonance, and the Doppler effect. There is also a full version of this app, called "Ripple Tank", which allows you to create your own experiments, save and load, and change colors. It is also optimized for iPad.
Pic2Mag
Visualize magnetic and electric fields by drawing magnets or charges. This educational tool helps students understand physics concepts by displaying field lines and voltage potentials. It offers a free, ad-free learning experience for iOS devices.
- Draw magnets to visualize magnetic fields
- Draw charges to visualize electric fields
- Magnetostatic and Electrostatic modes
- Field line and voltage potential plotting
- Caches results for faster processing
- Ad-free learning experience
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The user draws the magnets and the Pic2Mag program draws the magnetic fields. The Field Calculator program now has a Magnetostatic mode, and an Electrostatic mode to plot either magnetic fields or electric fields. The program designed to help students learn Magnetic fields and Electric fields. You can draw magnets and look at the magnetic field, or you can draw electric charges and look at the electric voltage field. The best free magnetic science program you can download! No advertisements, it's just all app. The app can process most images in just a few minutes. The app caches it's results so the more that you use it, the faster the program processes images. Red pixels represent magnets with a North pole surface facing the observer, and Blue pixels represent magnets with a South pole surface facing the observer. Pink pixels represent positive electric charges, and Dark Purple pixels represent negative electric charges
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pic2Mag at 5.0 against Ripple Tank Lite's 3.6. Ripple Tank Lite's advantage is update cadence (every 7 months vs every 31 months) and ratings volume (11 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pic2Mag holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ripple Tank Lite has 11 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Ripple Tank Lite ships an update every 7 months, Pic2Mag every 31 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ripple Tank Lite | Pic2Mag |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (11 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months — better | Every 31 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 8.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 108 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Falstad.com | Michael Snyder |
Customer experience
Ripple Tank Lite
Pic2Mag
In-app purchases
Ripple Tank Lite
No in-app purchases
Pic2Mag
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ripple Tank Lite free?
Is Pic2Mag free?
Which has better reviews, Ripple Tank Lite or Pic2Mag?
Do Ripple Tank Lite or Pic2Mag have ads?
Which is updated more often, Ripple Tank Lite or Pic2Mag?
Other comparisons
