Dave Bacon is a theoretical ski bum who is also an assistant research professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research is on quantum computing, his scientific passions extend to everything in physics, mathematics, computer science and beyond, and his personal pleasures include making wine, playing poker, skiing, camping, and daydreaming (although not all of those at the same time.)
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Category: Physics
Posted on: March 20, 2008 4:00 PM, by Dave Bacon
In high school, we had software which would simulate dynamics of different shaped objects. I used to set up part of the screen as a "hoop" and then try to design the crazies way for a ball to bounce off all sorts of shapes set with different initial velocities and into the hoop. It was kind of cool how Rube Goldburg you could get with this physics simulation, and it was, I'll admit, both quite fun, and absolutely geeky. Now, via Slate, I find that someone has made this into a game:
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Comments
There are two PC games out there that seem to conform to the laws of physics.
The first was a game called The Incredible Machine. I don't know what ever happened to it but that was a very fun game. You were given an objective and a bunch of parts. You had to assemble the parts in order to reach the objective.
The other is a web favorite, Line Rider.
Posted by: Tony P | March 20, 2008 5:24 PM
this would be great fun on a tablet PC fitted with an accelerometer (for detecting tipping and shaking)
also there's a lot more than just 2 - there's a whole blog dedicated to these types of 'physics' games at http://www.fun-motion.com/ - I'm not spamming my own blog, honestly. :)
Posted by: andy | March 20, 2008 7:33 PM
Crayon Physics is on the iPhone and it makes use of the accelerometer. If you have jailbroken your iPhone then just install the iPhysics package.
Oh, yeah, and Line Rider is completely awesome.
Posted by: astephens | March 20, 2008 7:58 PM
Rather than watching, you van play the game here:
http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/crayon
Mind you, it's only a small demo, but it's still pretty fun.
Posted by: Flavin | March 20, 2008 7:58 PM
Thanks a zillion Dave for showing me this interesting game. My physics spirits are high now! :)
Posted by: Jagadeesh Pakaravoor | March 24, 2008 8:12 AM
hehe, you physics orientated people should try game named Pontifex too. it is about bridgebuilding, not very similar to this game, but it is nice.
Posted by: pocho | March 29, 2008 8:06 PM