You Can Use This Silly Game to Do Some Serious Physics
You Can Use This Silly Game to Do Some Serious Physics
You Can Use This Silly Game to Do Some Serious Physics
By Rhett Allain
January 20, 2023
Summary
In the game, there's a white line circling the cartoon planet.
Using the height of the stick figure guy as a guide, I calculate that this line has an altitude of 11 meters above the planet.
Based on my measurements, the spacecraft was moving at around 13 m/s-a little bit slower than calculated.
During each interval, I can assume the acceleration is constant.
With this, I can calculate the position and velocity of the Python-object at the end of the time interval.
Then I can just repeat this for the next time interval and all the time intervals after that.
How does that compare to the motion in the What If world? I can plot the distance from the center of the planet as a function of time for both the measured and calculated rocket.
Reference
Allain, R. (2023, January 20). You can use this silly game to do some serious physics. Wired. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.wired.com/story/you-can-use-this-silly-game-to-do-some-serious-physics/