Professor Mendoza was interested in the use of educational technology in physics teaching. He was mainly responsible for reforming the physics syllabus at Manchester and later at the University College of North Wales in Bangor. He taught at the University of Bangor between 1964 and 1972 then moved to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
His research interests included the history of 19th century thermodynamics and kinetic theory and the relevance of that history to physics teaching. He constructed computer programs designed for use by the lecturer to illustrate points in the lecture (not for use by students privately). Mostly they illustrated processes difficult to describe in words. His interest in computer animation as a tool in teaching grew out of that.
This film introduces a hyperbolic well and experiments with the common claim that the orbits of the rolling marble are the same as the Kepler orbits for planets revolving around the sun.
