Computer games have steadily become a form of mainstream entertainment ever since Pong was released back in 1958. Today, it is hard to find an electronics department in any store that doesn't carry some sort of computer game. "Big deal," you say, "Everyone knows about computer games. What does they have to do with physics?" Well, the technology for creating more powerful software is constantly advancing, and since games are a form of software, they too become more and more advanced. As games become more advanced, game developers aim to create games that offer a more realistic experience. The technology has advanced to such a stage that making the games look real is no problem, but making a truly immersive experience is something different. That's where physics comes in.
Well, to answer that, you have to have a basic understanding of physics. Physics is the study of matter and energy, and how the two interact with each other. Things such as gravity, sound and light - all involve physics. As you might have noticed, gravity, sound and light are things we encounter quite frequently in our day to day routines. Game developers, in their goal to create a believable, realistic world for the gamer to immerse themselves in, know that in order to do so their game needs to incorporate the laws of physics. After all, their games wouldn't be very realistic if players kept floating away every time they tried to make their character jump or dodge around.
Gravity is only a small part of the realism experience. Developers have to incorporate as many laws of physics as they can in order to make their game truly realistic. Collisions play a big part in any game - it wouldn't be very believeable to allow players to move through walls or objects. Some games take the collision and elasticity elements further, and create extremely elaborate physics engines that can handle, say, two cars colliding, and produce a believeable outcome to the collision. Games like F1 Championship Racing and GTA3 have excellent physics engines that feature some really impressive automobile simulations. Many old games simply use gravity and collision detection in their games, but more recent games involve much more complicated physics applications.
So How Do They Do It?
Game developers use physics engines to simulate the physics effects in their games. What's a physics engine? A physics engine is a specialized piece of software specifically designed to integrate the laws of physics into a game.
Experience is also an important aspect of this because Technologies can provide unique experiences through simulations and virtual reality. This cannot be done, however, without a very high standard of design. Through technologies that have been designed specifically to simulate, children can discover passions about themselves and unleash powerful ideas.
Gymnasts use physics everyday. As a gymnast I never realized how much physics went into every motion, every back handspring, every mistake on the bars. If gymnasts were physicists (or at least knew more about physics) they would be better equipped to handle the difficult aspects of gymnastics. As a gymnast I learned the motions that were necessary to complete the tricks that I was working on, and as a coach I taught others the same. I never truly understood why a particular angle gave me a better back handspring or why the angle that I hit a springboard at really mattered when completing a vault. We are going to explore some of the different apparatuses in gymnastics and a few of the physics laws that are involved in them. We will not even barely scratch the surface of the different ways that physics can explain gymnastics.
Physics is everywhere. Consequently, physics is a part of sports and more specifically, hockey. As the scientific discoveries progressed with time, so did the advancements in the sport of hockey, reflecting on how important and influential science truly is. Physics takes part in the ice, the skates, the protective gear, the shots, goaltending, and all other aspects of ice hockey.
When it comes to physical contact sports, there are two categories, collision sports and tackling sports. American football, ice hockey, lacrosse, boxing, and many more are considered collision sports. Tackling sports would consider rugby, Gaelic football, Australian rules football, and even soccer as some of the world’s tackling sports. A collision sport is way more dangerous than a tackling one. For example, in a football game, it is pretty typical to see players lose their helmet’s, ripped out of their jersey’s, and be taken off the field by ambulance. Reason being is because nowadays players feel like they are Iron Man...
To current games like Half-life 2. With so many physics computations going on. They try to make this game the most realistic game.
Cars are large objects of great mass which can reach very fast velocities, this can be a dangerous combination if the physics aren’t correct. Seeing as there is over 1.2 billion cars world wide, physicians have put much detail into aspects of cars to make them as safe as possible. In the paragraphs below I will be be briefly discussing different aspects of the everyday automobile and its safety.
Physics can be found in all aspects of our lives and the world around us including the activities in which we find the most enjoyment. They may not be noticeable to the naked eye or even to our senses but they are there and when we become familiar with the concepts of physics then we began to ‘see’ physics everywhere.
We live in a world where simulation can be used for pretty much everything which can sometimes be considered a bad thing, but honestly it is a necessity for a lot of things because it is helpful. Computer simulations can help doctors train and learn to diagnose patients. Simulations are or can be used in so many things like education, science, entertainment, etc. and they are usually beneficial to us because they make us capable of doing more things that we could have never been able to without technology.
Video games have come a long way. They have evolved from the simple game of Pong into a complex, multi-platform, multi-genre, multi-billion dollar industry.
The average driver doesn’t think about what keeps their car moving or what keeps them on the road, but that’s because they don’t have to. The average driver doesn’t have to worry about having enough downforce to keep them on the road or if they will reach the adhesive limit of their car’s tires around a turn. These are the things are the car designers, professional drivers, racing pit crews, serious sports car owners, and physicist think about. Physics are an important part of every sports and racing car design. The stylish curves and ground effects on sports cars are usually there not just for form but function as well allowing you to go speeds over 140 mph in most serious sports cars and remain on the road and in reasonable control.
Haptics is a recent enhancement to virtual environments allowing users to “touch” and feel the simulated objects with which they interact. Haptics is the science of touch. The word derives from the Greek haptikos meaning “being able to come into contact with”. The study of haptics emerged from advances in virtual reality. Virtual reality is a form of human-computer interaction (as opposed to keyboard, mouse and monitor) providing a virtual environment that one can explore through direct interaction with our senses. To be able to interact with an environment, there must be feedback. For example, the user should be able to touch a virtual object and feel a response from it. This type of feedback is called haptic feedback .In human-computer interaction; haptic feedback means both tactile and force feedback.
Plus, they play to try to release their stress, frustration, and pressure after having a hard time doing their homework or in class. Video game developers goal is to make fans happy when they play their games. Video games are meant to have a feeling of adventure, enjoyment, and excitement. It helps the player to play video games without harm. Video games also help players relax after all of their work at school, jobs, or cleaning in and outside of their home....
The most important part of the game of basketball is shooting the basketball, after all the object of the game is to put the basketball through the basket. A shot is taken by a player pushing on the ball and launching it toward the basket and upon the ball hitting the rim or backboard physics refers to this action as a contact force. Using this concept of contact force a shot can be calculated exactly. From a player’s height, the mass of the ball and a given position on the court which would include the distance from the basket it is possible to calculate the exact angle and force the shooter must apply to make a basket every time he or she shoots the ball. Of course if it were this easy basketball would not be as fun to watch or play. The problem with hitting a shot every time with the calculated angle and force is that the ball would have to travel toward the basket with the exact angle and force calculated for that particular shot. What makes this difficult is that the muscles in our body would have to be controlled flawlessly to push the ball with the exact amount of force and to give the ball the exact angle that is needed every time a shot is taken...
New gaming technology is being developed every year; the effects can only get more enhanced.
How does a video game, an object designed to have fun, simulate a working environment? Video games are programs so that they give the player something to do. These things are limited to what the creators of the game programmed the game to do (Poole). For example, let’s say you’re playing a game about