Learn physics by playing it
Every game here runs on real physics equations — not approximations, not cartoon physics. When your satellite stabilises at the right altitude, you have understood Kepler's third law. When your pendulum hits every target, you have felt what period independence really means.
Why physics games work
Traditional physics education asks you to memorise equations first and build intuition second. Physics games invert this — you develop physical intuition through dozens of interactive experiments, and equations become a natural language for something you have already felt.
Each game here is designed around a single core concept, introduces it through play across 8–10 levels, then links to the full article where the mathematics is derived and explained.
What each game teaches
Launch projectiles, manipulate gravity, and solve 9 increasingly complex puzzles. Real kinematics — every shot follows actual equations.
Launch satellites into stable orbits. Too fast and you escape — too slow and you crash. Discover Kepler's laws through direct control.
Control pendulum length and release angle to knock targets. Multi-pendulum chains reveal resonance, energy transfer, and period independence.
Set mass, velocity and elasticity — then land balls in exact target zones using momentum transfer. Elastic to perfectly inelastic collisions.
Place wave sources on a 2D field and watch interference patterns emerge. Hit the resonance zone using constructive interference.
Control the temperature of a gas — particles must reach escape velocity to break free. Watch Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions shift.
Drag and connect resistors, capacitors, and batteries to light up bulbs at target voltage. From basic Ohm's law to RC circuit puzzles.
Place mirrors, prisms and lenses to redirect a laser to a target. Reflection, refraction and focal length puzzles up to multi-lens systems.
Drop objects of different shapes and densities in air or vacuum — predict landing order. Adjust drag coefficient to reach the target time.
Route a ball through ramps, springs, and heights to arrive at the exit with exactly the required energy. Every joule is conserved — or lost to friction.
Place positive and negative charges to steer a test particle through obstacles to the goal. Real Coulomb's law physics, computed live every frame.
Physics-accurate 2D billiards. Drag to aim, release to shoot — elastic and inelastic collisions decide where every ball ends up.
Aim a light ray through layered media before time runs out. Match Snell's law and you land in the goal — including a total internal reflection level.
A real decay curve builds live on screen — find where it crosses 50% and match it to the correct isotope, from a 6-hour medical tracer to a 4.5-billion-year dating standard.
Solve T = 2π√(m/k) for the missing spring constant or mass, then watch the live oscillation confirm you hit the target rhythm exactly — ending in a two-spring chord.
Choose a material and beam height so bending stress stays below yield strength, using σ = 3WL/2wh² — while using as little material as possible.
Launch with one burn, let a planet's own gravity add real extra speed for free, and reach the target ring using as little fuel as possible — the same trick NASA uses.
Size hydraulic lifts using Pascal's law and predict floating objects using Archimedes' principle — ending in a level that needs both together.
A magnet falls through conducting rings — predict the induced current direction at every approach and departure, before time runs out.
Adjust string tension until the standing wave locks onto a target harmonic frequency — watch the wave pattern update live as you experiment.
Adjust particle energy until quantum tunnelling probability through a barrier hits the target — a real, calculable chance of doing the classically impossible.
Navigate a ship to an exact destination through wind and current — solve H = D − W for the heading, then watch your resultant path play out.
Design a heat engine's efficiency to maximize work output, without ever exceeding the theoretical Carnot limit. Try to cheat the second law and get caught instantly.
Adjust a moving sound source's speed until the observed frequency hits the target — watch compressed and stretched wavefronts animate live.
Choose protons and neutrons to build nuclei, predicting binding energy via the semi-empirical mass formula — finishes with a real Uranium-235 fission demo.