All Links

The definitive collection of free online resources for physics classes. Run by University of Colorado Boulder.

Have you ever wanted to walk backward into a black hole? Fly through a wormhole? Now’s your chance in this relativistic simulation. Based on the setup in the movie Interstellar, and created by sirXemic.

An evolution simulator heavily based in biology, built by Revolutionary Game Studio.

Very cool 3D astronomical simulations, running right in the browser. Created by Darrell Huffman.

Simulation for investigating waves and interference, with a bunch of customizable physics options. Created by Falstad.

Investigating molecules bouncing around in a piston in various states of matter. Good thermodynamics simulations by PhET.

Evolving creature simulator where the creatures are basically 3D sets of boxes. Built by Evol Games.

Particles bouncing around in a box, with lots of options for changing the setup. Includes thermodynamic quantities, too. Built by Falstad.

Sets of pages with lessons and interactives about a variety of physics topics.

A set of Desmos simulations covering a wide range of physics including many about mechanics – an excellent resource for teachers and students. Created by Michael Freeman.

Investigate the gravitational wave signals from colliding black holes. Created by Cardiff University. 

Draw the bones and muscles for your stick-figure creatures, and evolve them into better racers. Built by Keiwando.

Basically lets you recreate The Game of Life, but with emoji and any rules you’d like to put in. Created by Nicky Case.

Fun toy that lets you play with a Reaction Diffusion System, a simulation that easily makes interesting patterns and has a connection to how biological systems grow. Created by pmeila.

A humorous idle game about particle colliders and the physics process. Created by Biro, Babuschkin, Dungs, Novak, and Zhang.

A collection of interactive physics resources that are fun and easy to use. By Matthew Blackman.

A collection of Explorable Explanations curated by Nicky Case.

A strategy game that revolves around genetics and evolution. Created by Stray Fawn Studio.

A beautiful simulation of a fluid that’s quite fun to play with. Mesmorizing… Built by Pavel Dobryakov.

Turn your phone into a physics lab. Graph things like acceleration, pressure, and magnetic field. Very powerful stuff. Created by RWTH Aachen University.

Minigolf, but in 4 Dimensions of space. Very confusing, but very well done. Made for PC, and created by CodeParade.

Puzzle game where you move and bond atoms into molecules by dragging them along particular paths. Created by Draknek & Friends.

Electromagnetic game where your character can charge themselves to move around the levels. Created by TestTubeGames.

Explore the atomic realm in this game about molecular bonds. Created by TestTubeGames.

Particle simulation that is great for exploring thermodynamics, or Newtonian mechanics, gas laws, etc. Created by Dan Schroeder.

A simulation of the spacetime around a Schwarzschild black hole where you can fling astroids and light to your heart’s content. Created by TestTubeGames.

Collection of various science learning resources hosted by PBS LearningMedia. Covers topics such as physics, biology, and geology.

Explore the spacetime around a black hole in your rocket ship. Created by TestTubeGames.

Like Wordle for plants – learn about the wild world of plant classifications. Created by Trainwreck Labs.

Fun card game about making choices to try and solve climate change in time. By Molleindustria.

A simulation of falling sand and so much more, a surprising amount of physics built into this toy. Created by the R74n Collective.

Great game about recreating circuits based on a mystery setup. Good for testing knowledge about circuits. Created by Universe & More.

Investigate systems that interact, such as the predator-prey population dynamics and much, much more. Created by Nicky Case.

A look at the quantum mechanics behind Bell’s Inequality, using a casino as an example. Built as a long blog post with many interactives along the way. Created by Adam Becker.

Fly through the universe near the speed of light, and experience the relativistic effects of length contraction and time dilation. Can you make it to Andromeda in one raptor’s lifetime? Built by TestTubeGames.

Most games aren’t rocket science, but this one is. Created by Squad.

Physics education software created mostly by Dan Schroeder, some excellent simulations in here.

A game about making waves, literally, and doing your best to match various patterns. Created by Universe & More.

A to-scale model of the solar system in a browser window. Created by Josh Worth.

An evolving creature simulator where the creature are boxes stuck together into piles. Built by Evol Games.

Fling planets and change physics in this gravity sandbox. Available in browser and for download. Created by TestTubeGames.

Collection of small simulations created by Falstad.

Just an amazing trove of science simulations built by middle school teacher, DJ Lee. I’m amazed at how much is covered here.

Fun google doodle where you match atomic elements up on dates, and their level of ‘attraction’ is based on the atomic attraction those elements would feel.

App that lets you explore a tesseract, built by Lunar Skydiving.

A simple gravity simulator for the web. Created by Hermann.

An explorable explanation of the orbits around a spinning black hole. Created by Dr. Leo Stein.

Downloadable space simulation that lets you smash planets together in a really cool way. Created by Giant Army.

Explore how Gravitational Lensing can be used to find Dark Matter. And as a bonus there’s a game at the end! Created by Shaun Hotchkiss.

Gravity game on mobile devices and steam, where you pass levels by orbiting multiple planets without crashing them. Created by Highkey Games.

Explore the optical effects of special relativity in a 3D setting. Created by MIT Game Lab.

A playful look at the science behind ‘floating’ in space. Created by TestTubeGames.

Build tons of 2D physics simulations with this free resource. Easy to check out, tons of cool stuff you can do with it. Created by Dimitris Xanthopoulos.

An easy-to-use rocket simulator. See if you can build a ship that can make it to space, the moon, or further. Now see if you can do it safely. Free demo versions available on certain platforms.

Pixel based simulation of life, where each color represents a type of cell for the organism. Over time organisms evolve in their virtual environment. Created by Max Robinson.

THE definitive list of science games – both digital and physical. Curated by Dr. Melanie Stegman.

A roguelike game set on a hyperbolic plane. Easier played than understood, I’d say. Created by Zeno Rogue Games.

A nervous system simulation game, where you build brains to control creatures. Created by Olive.

A game that explores quantum mechanics, with an emphasis on quantum computing. Created by Quantum Flytrap.

A simulated swing, with some tools for exploring the physics behind pumping your legs. Created by TestTubeGames.

Crawling stick figure creatures evolve before your eyes. Created by TestTubeGames.

Nice simple game about electrical attraction and repulsion – and hitting a target. Created by Universe & More.

A nice interactive look at three-body orbits that repeat. Created by Ricky Reusser.

A collection of science interactives by Concord Consortium.

A strategy game where you’re building an efficient factory, but the factory is a cell and all its biological processes. Created by Pixbits.

Particle Physics game for PC where you control a down quark through level after level of puzzles that require you to avoid, attract, and repel other Standard Model particles. Created by SeeThrough Studios.

Like Wordle for animals, but instead of matching letters and words, you’re matching various orders/families/clades of animal classification. Created by Trainwreck Labs.

A collection of science interactives by MinuteLabs.

A spreadsheet pulled together for teachers of a categorized list of hundreds (wait, thousands!) of simulations you can find online, sorted by topic. An incredible resource organized by Helen Reynolds.

A customizable toy of a double pendulum. Created by MinuteLabs.

Simple light color mixing simulation, by Alex Larioza.

A variant of the game 2048, where the tiles are fusing elements in a star. Created by Dimitar Dimitrov.

Have you ever wanted to evolve mold? Here, you can evolve mold. Created by erytau.

A lot of cool interactive math-y explorables to check out. Created by Ricky Reusser.

An interactive blog post about waves, their shapes, adding them together, and harmonics.

Nice tool for easily creating and testing simple circuits, built by PhET.

Electromagnetic wave simulation. Created by Falstad.

Lots of small simulations of things like pendulums and springs, where you can easily change the values, too. By Erik Neumann.

An interactive video that lets you explore the math and patterns of virus structures. Created by Hamish Todd.

Evolution simulator where little creatures swim around and evolve. A deep amount of complexity. Created by Léo Caussan.

Long blog post about the physics behind bicycles. Full of interactives, and very cleanly done. Covers an absurd amount of mechanics. Created by Bartosz Ciechanowski.

A large set of interactive physics simulations built by Tom Walsh. Covers a wide range of physics, including forces, waves, and light.

Cool look at gravity of many, many bodies, calculated on a mesh. Looks neat, too. Created by Ricky Reusser.

Collection of small physics simulations, many including nice explanations. Built by Michael Fowler.

A slick simulation of particles flying around a black hole. Created by Ricky Reusser.

A special relativistic game where a dinosaur travels near the speed of light. Created by TestTubeGames.

An interactive book about geology and earth science, available for iPad and Mac. Created by Chaim Gingold.

Simulate solar eclipses, even on other planets and with other moons. Created by MinuteLabs.

Blog post about Entropy, full of interactive simulations. Written clearly and understandably, also with sheep. Created by Aatish Bhatia.