Simulations

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Electromagnetic wave simulation. Created by Falstad.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Simple lens simulation by MinuteLabs.

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.

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

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

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

Have you ever wanted to evolve mold? Here, you can evolve mold. Recently updated! Created by ery tau.

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.

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

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

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

The math of how Thai fireflies time themselves. 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.

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

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

Simple light color mixing simulation, by Alex Larioza.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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