Links to the simulations. Explore the universe, virtually.
If any links are broken, let me know.
Let’s Learn About Waveforms
States of Matter
Investigating molecules bouncing around in a piston in various states of matter. Good thermodynamics simulations by PhET.
Earth Primer
An interactive book about geology and earth science, available for iPad and Mac. Created by Chaim Gingold.
The Life Engine
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.
Swing Explorer
A simulated swing, with some tools for exploring the physics behind pumping your legs. Created by TestTubeGames.
Falstad Gas
Particles bouncing around in a box, with lots of options for changing the setup. Includes thermodynamic quantities, too. Built by Falstad.
Gravity with Poisson Equation
Cool look at gravity of many, many bodies, calculated on a mesh. Looks neat, too. Created by Ricky Reusser.
RGB Color Sim
Simple light color mixing simulation, by Alex Larioza.
Thrive
An evolution simulator heavily based in biology, built by Revolutionary Game Studio.
Evolution
Draw the bones and muscles for your stick-figure creatures, and evolve them into better racers. Built by Keiwando.
Physion
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.
The Fourth Dimension
App that lets you explore a tesseract, built by Lunar Skydiving.
Emoji Simulator
Basically lets you recreate The Game of Life, but with emoji and any rules you’d like to put in. Created by Nicky Case.
Evol Pedal
An evolving creature simulator where the creature are boxes stuck together into piles. Built by Evol Games.
Schwarzschild Trajectories
A slick simulation of particles flying around a black hole. Created by Ricky Reusser.
Veloc-t in Space
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.
Circuit Construction Kit
Nice tool for easily creating and testing simple circuits, built by PhET.
Spaceflight Simulator
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.
Quantum Roulette and the Nature of Reality
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.
PhyPhox
Turn your phone into a physics lab. Graph things like acceleration, pressure, and magnetic field. Very powerful stuff. Created by RWTH Aachen University.
The Fittest 2
Crawling stick figure creatures evolve before your eyes. Created by TestTubeGames.
Bicycle
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.
Gravity Simulator – TestTubeGames
Fling planets and change physics in this gravity sandbox. Available in browser and for download. Created by TestTubeGames.
The Bibites
Evolution simulator where little creatures swim around and evolve. A deep amount of complexity. Created by Léo Caussan.
Interstellar
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.
If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel
A to-scale model of the solar system in a browser window. Created by Josh Worth.
Gravity Simulator – Huffman
Very cool 3D astronomical simulations, running right in the browser. Created by Darrell Huffman.
Virus, the Beauty of the Beast
An interactive video that lets you explore the math and patterns of virus structures. Created by Hamish Todd.
Loopy
Investigate systems that interact, such as the predator-prey population dynamics and much, much more. Created by Nicky Case.
Ripple Tank Simulation
Simulation for investigating waves and interference, with a bunch of customizable physics options. Created by Falstad.
Black Hole Launcher
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.
Interactive Molecular Dynamics
Particle simulation that is great for exploring thermodynamics, or Newtonian mechanics, gas laws, etc. Created by Dan Schroeder.
Evol Pedal 3D
Evolving creature simulator where the creatures are basically 3D sets of boxes. Built by Evol Games.
Universe Sandbox
Downloadable space simulation that lets you smash planets together in a really cool way. Created by Giant Army.
Chaotic Pendulum
A customizable toy of a double pendulum. Created by MinuteLabs.
Cute Mold
Have you ever wanted to evolve mold? Here, you can evolve mold. Created by erytau.
Fluid Simulation
A beautiful simulation of a fluid that’s quite fun to play with. Mesmorizing… Built by Pavel Dobryakov.
Kerr Spherical Photon Orbits
An explorable explanation of the orbits around a spinning black hole. Created by Dr. Leo Stein.
Reaction Diffusion System
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.
Eclipse Explorer
Simulate solar eclipses, even on other planets and with other moons. Created by MinuteLabs.
Entropy Explained, With Sheep
Blog post about Entropy, full of interactive simulations. Written clearly and understandably, also with sheep. Created by Aatish Bhatia.
Periodic Three-Body Orbits
A nice interactive look at three-body orbits that repeat. Created by Ricky Reusser.
Sandboxels
A simulation of falling sand and so much more, a surprising amount of physics built into this toy. Created by the R74n Collective.
Gravity
A simple gravity simulator for the web. Created by Hermann.