FUGE: an analytical ultracentrifuge simulation for teaching purposes.

An IBM-compatible microcomputer program for teaching purposes is described which stimulates the operation of a sedimentation velocity determination of a protein in an analytical ultracentrifuge using schlieren optics. The program operates in speeded-up time and simulates the major procedures which would need to be carried out to operate such an instrument. The position of the sedimenting boundary can be observed at any time during the run, and up to six 'photographs' can be recorded for subsequent analysis. Calculation of sedimentation coefficient, diffusion coefficient and mol. wt can be made from a dot-matrix printout. Ten representative proteins are stored within the program, but provision exists for user-supplied data.