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:
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Having spent a lot of time solving equations related to sticky tape models, including trying to work solutions in my head while driving to Grandma and Grandpa's with the kids, and making some measurements of real tapes, there was only one thing left to do: try simulating this problem in VPython.…
Lately I've been giving a lot of thought to a question that I'm nearly constantly asked: "So...[long pause]...are you a physicist...[long pause]...or are you a computer scientist?" Like many theorists in quantum computing, a field perched between the two proud disciplines of physics and computer…
They pushed the curtain back a few feet at the Carrier Dome, opening up a few more seats so they could set a new record for largest on-campus crowd to see a college basketball game for Syracuse playing Villanova for a share of the Big East regular season title. This is the sort of atmosphere where…
Yesterday's post about VPython simulation of the famous bicycle wheel demo showed that you can get the precession and nutation from a simulation that only includes forces. But this is still kind of mysterious, from the standpoint of basic physics intuition. Specifically, it's sort of hard to see…
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.
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. :)
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.
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.
Thanks a zillion Dave for showing me this interesting game. My physics spirits are high now! :)
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.