[OLPC library] [OLPC-Games] Physics -- Newtonian mechanics.. for kids!

[Edward Cherlin]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Brian Jordan <brian at laptop.org> wrote:
> Hi friends!
>
> Physics is a physics playground for the XO currently being written by
> myself and Alex Levenson. We hope it will be a fun tool for playing
> with and learning physical concepts, and that the work of the
> Physics/Elements teams can be used as a backend for making all
> activities fun and interactive.

Excellent. I will join your discussion.

> Get it at:
> http://dev.laptop.org/~bjordan/Physics-0.2.xo (click in Browse to install)
>
> Join the fight against everything other than Physics!
>
> Wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Physics
> IRC: irc.freenode.net #olpc-physics
>     We are having a meeting at 6:30pm EST today on #sugar
> (irc.freenode.net) with key XO-physicists. Join us!
> Git: http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=activities/physics
>
> Physics currently supports:
> - Creating: triangles, boxes, circles
> - Drawing: polygons, "magic pen" shapes
> - Grabbing objects
> - Connecting objects with joints

So we could simulate a pendulum or a Newton's cradle? How do you
handle collisions?

Any idea how many objects you can simulate and render in real time?

> - Destroying objects with a fun to use red path of destruction
>
> Physics currently uses a default Earth-style (pointing downward)
> gravity,

Do you mean a Galilean constant-acceleration field for small spaces on
the ground, or a Newtonian inverse-square central field including
orbital space?

> friction, size-based masses

Can we add uniform density shown by color saturation or something like that?

> and a set of colors which are
> randomly picked when an object is created. We are working on
> simple-to-use contextual menus for modifying and visualizing these
> parameters in the activity.
>
> We are planning to add many other tools and toys in Physics, and
> encourage suggestions (drawings/diagrams!), bug reports and code
> contributions from other developers.

Can you link to Measure?

> Physics (by way of Elements and pyBox2D) uses the open source 2D C++
> physics engine Box2D2 as a back end, which has a lot of functionality
> that we haven't implemented yet.

Any thoughts about using SciPy for visualization?

> Cheers,
> Brian Jordan
> 3D intern trapped in a 2D world
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>



-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay