All Links

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

Electromagnetic wave simulation. Created by Falstad.

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

A collection of small open source physics simulations, created by Academo.

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

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

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

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

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

Fascinating simulator that gives you a lot of power to change the rules of the world, adding in various forces, rules, and objects. Can create some interesting things. Built by lisyarus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collection of interesting astronomical and cosmological simulations, created by Haus der Astronomie.

Scroll down the page and explore what energies match what masses, according to the famous equation E=mc^2. Created by MinuteLabs.

See a globe of earth, but back in history, millions of years ago. Watch the techtonic plates move, and see where in Pangaea your house was.

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.

Simple lens simulation by MinuteLabs.

Cute, accessible game about programming, where you move characters around a level with lists of commands. Created by Bobby Lox.

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

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

Steam game where you create circuits from basic logic gates, even building your way up to a working computer. Created by LevelHead.

Simple simulation: draw an iceberg, and see how it will float in the water. Inspired by the idea that icebergs are often drawn incorrectly. Made by joshdata.

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

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

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

Fascinating simulation where you can add and move objects in 4 dimensions. On mobile or pc, and created by mtb design works.

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

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

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

Easy-to-use simulator for modeling electric fields around point charges. Created by Ithaca College.

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.

A game where you use math equations to create the proper slopes for sledding. Created by Chris Walker.

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.

Simple tool for exploring the night sky at different wavelengths of light. Built by Lowe, Simpson, and North.

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

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

Scrollable explorer where you can see what’s in the deep ocean, the deeper you go. By Neal.fun.

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

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

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

Excellent web simulator for optics, with a wide range of lenses, mirrors, prisms, and other objects you can add. Created by Yi-Ting Tu.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 variety of interesting lessons, simulations, and explorables about topics in math, physics, and programming. Created by Amit Patel.

Scroll up on this webpage and take yourself higher and higher, exploring “What’s up there?” with fun cartoony graphics. Created by neal.fun.

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

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

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

Some interesting simulations about how eyes work to see the world. Created by Ala’, Andrew, Jason, Peter, and Tanya.

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

An interactive explorable about the physics behind gears. Created by Bartosz Ciechanowski.

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.

Surprisingly powerful tool for creating circuits and seeing their behavior, created by Falstad.

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

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

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

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

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

Web based oscilloscope, with a variety of settings to explore, among them the ability to use your microphone to input the wave pattern. Created by Neil Thapen.

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

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

What is a day, actually? Part video, part simulation, all interesting. Created by Jasper Palfree.

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

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

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.

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

A collection of Explorable Explanations curated by Nicky Case.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

A collection of science interactives by Concord Consortium.

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

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.

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

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

Set of simulations and explorables about math, created by Nat Alison.

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

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.

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

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

Build a computer from scratch in this puzzle game that teaches you actual programming and computing concepts. Created by Olav Junker Kjær.

Simple light color mixing simulation, by Alex Larioza.

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

Basic and easy-to-use simulation for light curving around a black hole. Created by Thomas Müller.

Collection of small simulations created by Falstad.

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

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

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

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.

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 idle game based on quantum computing, where you build up from one Qubit to a full working quantum computer. Created by Doublespeak Game.

A collection of science interactives by MinuteLabs.

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

Cool phone app that can turn your device into a physics sensor, measuring things like sound, acceleration, light, etc. Created by Vieyra Software.

Small wordle-esque game where you’re trying to guess which country is represented, based on its sources of electricity. Fun way to learn about the energy supplies of the world. Created by Jo Melville.

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

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

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

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

The math of how Thai fireflies time themselves. Created by Nicky Case.

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

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