Dynamic Systems

for those of you reading this at school (and can only read this at school; owned!), I'm not sure if flash games are surf controlled, so I apologize in advance.

I struggled for awhile to find something in my house related to nuclear physics, so I decided that really, it wasn't worth the effort. I'd have to find something else. While procrastinating, I stumbled upon this nifty game thing called 'dynamic systems.'

The game is extremely simple at first, but gets exponentially harder within the first five levels. The idea is simple: initially, a silver ball is present on the board, somewhere far, far, away from the bucket. Using the random assortment of tools provided and properties of physics, one must place various objects which, when the ball is set into motion, will successfully make the ball fall into the bucket.

There is, of course, a "reset" option if your setup does not work. There is also a 'solution' button which obviously gives you the answer if you truly are stumped.

After playing with the game a bit, I'll be the first to admit that it gets extremely frustrating rather quickly. By the ninth level or so, I had no idea what the tools given to me or assorted machinery on the map would even do. Nevertheless, I saw gears, levers, even a windmill type thing which seemed to undergo uniform circular motion.

However, no matter how complicated the levels get, the key to beating each individual level is correctly visualizing what will happen to the ball as it passes each obstacle. Some tools they give you slow the ball down, probably displaying some effect of high friction. Others such as a ramp (which you can put at any angle) allow the control of how quickly the ball falls, and where it lands. On the fourth level, there are even domino blocks which cause a chain reaction through conservation of momentum.

For those of you who want to see what the game looks like but are too lazy to click the link of the actual game, I'll throw you a bone. Here's one of the first levels, where the setup is relatively easy. Notice how you can also rotate the various objects provided.





and for the rest of you, here's the game itself, along with a bunch of other "physics" related games.

Online Physics Games