Review of Physics-Games Dot Net

The website features a host of free, quick-to-learn, easy-to-use games that help demonstrate basic physics concepts. The games are mostly based around puzzles of how to construct a structure or trigger a chain of events to yield a specific physical outcome, often in response to the gravitational forces acting on the situation.

The games on Physics-Games Dot Net represent some fun, old-style addictive puzzle games, with a physics twist. They generally focus on the player's ability to see how a situation will evolve under the laws of physics - often having to do with objects falling in gravity or how they will respond to certain types of collisions - and trying to act in such a way to manipulate the situation to some desired outcome.

Will the player become a physics master playing these games? No, certainly not. In fact, none of the games on the site that I played would provide any real direct educational value to a student trying to learn physics. These are not, in that sense, "educational" science games.

However, what they do offer is a way for young people to engage with physics concepts in an intuitive and entertaining way, and in that respect I think the site provides a welcome diversion for anyone who enjoys science. These games aren't about the boring parts of science, they're about the fun parts of science - the explosions, collisions, collapses, and other chaotic elements. And, through all of this, it provides some virtual experiments related to:

• gravitation
• conservation of momentum & elastic collisions
• Newton's laws of motion
• projectile motion

The games are flash-based, so can be played on almost any internet interface. They're also created by independent game developers the world over. And, did I mention, they're free?

The one major downside that I saw is the advertisement placements. At one point, I almost clicked on an ad because I thought it was a link to another game on the site. Only at the last moment did I realize that it was actually an ad for a game on a completely different site, so I was able to avoid clicking on it. Overall, I thought that it would have helped to have had the advertisements more clearly marked.