Energy and Momentum Resources

Games and Simulations

Physics Simulations

The University of Colorado at Boulder has a great collection of interactive physics simulations. Just think of them as Starcraft for scientists. You can check out the ones on work, energy, and power, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

Flash Sledding

A flash game as old as the Internet itself, Line Rider is still a great introduction to how much kinetic energy you need to get over that hill.

Videos

Great Moments in Momentum

No one explains momentum quite like the man—the legend—Bill Nye the Science Guy. Wait for the end, when he shows a clip of what we can only assume is motorcycle polo.

Wind Power in Malawi

Faced with the choice of starvation or innovation, William Kamkwamba probably made the right choice and created a windmill to irrigate his family's farm.

Nuclear Fusion

Currently, all of the world's nuclear power plants use fission, splitting big atoms like uranium into smaller ones. But the ultimate goal of clean power generation has always been nuclear fusion, combining smaller elements into bigger ones—we just need to be able to make temperatures comparable to our own existing natural fusion source (which, of course, is the sun... so no problem, right?).

Speaking of Fusion...

They Might Be Giants explain the physics of solar fusion. Sort of.

Websites

ARPA-E

Modeled after DARPA, the Defense Department's advanced research projects agency, the Department of Energy created the ARPA-E program to fund high-risk breakthroughs in energy technology.

Orders of Magnitude

One of the most useful skills in physics is the ability to tell whether or not a number is reasonable for the quantity it represents. A key way to do that is to know, roughly, the order of magnitude of various benchmarks—if you end up with an answer that says your block sliding on a table has as much energy as the yearly electricity consumption of the entire country of Norway, you've probably added an extra zero (or seventeen).

Tour de Physics

How steep a hill can a professional bike rider successfully climb? Well, a steeper hill than we can. But the limit is power—and without strapping a horse to their carbon-framed bicycles, eventually even professional cyclists will have to give in to the limits of human power production.

Where is the Ambassador?!

Darth Vader may be strong (he is, after all, more machine than man), but he still probably had to use the Force to lift a rebel captain the way you see at the beginning of Episode IV. And he finds your lack of faith disturbing.