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YouTube & Physics Games
by Harold Rodriguez

Let's face it: dramatic squirrels and the evolution of dance can lose its spark after a while. Luckily, YouTube has a ton of videos for us Physics majors to waste an afternoon on. Do a YouTube search for "Crayon Physics Deluxe". It's a physics puzzle game with graphics only a mother could love, and hang on a fridge. As the video shows, every object in the game is crudely drawn in Crayon, including your additions. If you draw a square, or a random shape, the shape falls as it were affected by gravity. If you draw a staircase, objects can tumble down them. Miraculously, if you draw two circles and a "shell" above them, the circles act as wheels--the program knew you drew a car! Moreover, drawing a big "golf club" and putting a dot in the middle creates a swinging "whacker". It's incredible to see how the engine interprets the physics of simple crayon shapes.



Now search "Phun 2d physics sandbox". This game is not "Crayony", but its the same type of deal. You can "freeze time" until everything is set up. If you draw and pile boxes on each other over uneven ground, they stand still - until you lower their coefficients of friction, and then they all slide off! With the help of ropes, springs, and hinges, you can create guns, projectiles, rag dolls, and more. The YouTube video is great because the user creates a simple piston which turns into a pellet shooter. The best part is "liquifying" an object, which replaces it by a bunch of tiny particles. This game is free! If you have an iPhone or unlocked iPod Touch, you can search for "iPhysics" and see how people hacked this to use a touchscreen.

Last but not least, search for "3000 barrel explosion". Some background: "Crysis" is probably the most realistic video game to date, as its game engine "CryENGINE2" and physics subsystem "CryPhysics" is pushing what a personal computer can do in terms of interactive simulations (i.e. realistic games). Anyway, the video shows someone in the game's accompanying editor, stacking 3000 explosive barrels, and performing many "physics experiments". For instance, pulling out the bottommost ones, or colliding himself into them as they realistically react. He also casts an "invisible" tornado, causing thousands of barrels to spin and collide. Remember, this is not calculated using the engine's particle physics system but its actual in-game physics. Lastly, he shoots the barrels, causing a huge chain reaction. The user notes he can't look directly into the blast "for more than 2 seconds... or [his] system will freeze". Has anyone tried to simulate the explosion of 3000 bombs before? This game does a good job. Have you ever wanted to simulate the collapse of a star? Someone has updated this concept and triggered your next YouTube search: "13265 barrel explosion".