The Bloch Simulator developed by Lars G. Hanson has for years been widely used for learning and teaching MR internationally. It offers interactive exploration of the MR phenomenon and infinite possbilities for experimenting with a wide range of MR techniques. The dynamics of 3D magnetization vectors are visualized as the user interactively chooses sequence events such as RF and gradient pulses.

The simulator was made to run in any web browser, but due to evolving web technologies, a complete rewrite became pertinent (Flash being replaced by JavaScript/HTML). A version is now released that simultaneously offers many new and improved possibilities while simplifying the user interface. This also allows the simulator to be run as a free app on mobile devices, currently Android™ devices, which may be important for student use during lectures, for example.

The simulator is named after Nobel laureate Felix Bloch, who also appears on the Bloch Simulator app icon (right).

The screen shot below shows the simulator in action for demonstrating T1-weighting resulting from repeated excitation following spoiling. Try it out!