Simulations

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Simple lens simulation by MinuteLabs.

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

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

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.

Electromagnetic wave simulation. Created by Falstad.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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