Angry Birds At The Kennedy Space Center

You know it was bound to happen. When Angry Birds went into space, all the signs pointed to it partnering with NASA to come up with some educational tie-in. So now it has happened.

At NASA's invitation, the online game birds are roosting at Kennedy Space Center for the next 1 1/2 years in an effort to lure youngsters to the cosmic wonders of math and science.

The huge interactive exhibit opened March 22 and immediately packed in the kids, including this reporter's 7-year-old son, who couldn't get enough of the mirrored maze and design-your-own Angry Bird and play-the-game stations.

Too bad they didn't have this when I was there last December. Maybe I'll make it back there some time soon before the exhibit goes away.

Zz.

RToBad

Too eTooad 

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e here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/27/4733211/space-centers-angry-birds-exhibit.html#storylink=cpy

Angry Birds Bumps With CERN

So I don't have any clue on what would be the outcome of such a "marriage". Still, it appears that Rovio, the makers of the wildly-popular Angry Birds (and Angry Pigs) games are teaming up with CERN to come up with some educational games.

Rovio told TechCrunch the collaboration will involve co-producing learning support materials with CERN — including, initially, books and a board game. More products will be added later, the company said. We’ve also reached out to CERN to ask for more details and will update with any response.

“Modern physics has been around for 100 years, but it’s still a mystery to many people. Working together with Rovio, we can teach kids quantum physics by making it fun and easy to understand,” said CERN’s Head of Education, Rolf Landua, speaking at the Frankfurt Book Fair where the Rovio launch took place.

 Er... ok. I am certainly curious to see what they come up with. Angry photons smashing into fat, lazy quarks?

Zz.

The Non-Newtonian Physics Of Angry Birds Space

It was bound to happen. Analysis of the physics (or non-physics) of the new Angry Birds Space is already out. This is one such example. Of course, anyone with a good knowledge of physics would have already spotted a few non-Newtonian dynamics of this game.

But some of the more realistic characteristics of the game don’t quite obey Newton’s laws. For starters, the gravitational fields appear to have a uniform magnitude instead of weakening with distance from an object’s center (called the inverse square rule). That seems to be a casualty of making the game fun. “Otherwise, gravity would be too weak at the edges of the field,” says Erin Catto, the game physics programmer who created Box2d, the physics engine that runs behind the curtain at Angry Birds.

It's still a fun game but it would have been ridiculously outrageous if they had stuck with the actual physics. :)

Zz.

NASA Uses "Angry Birds - Space" To Teacy Microgravity

Hey, why not?

NASA is making use of the crazy popularity of Angry Birds - Space to teach about microgravity.

Angry Birds Space has provided NASA an opportunity to share a core concept of space exploration: gravity. Not only does gravity play a vital role in the game but, in general, gravity is a force that governs motion throughout the universe. It holds us to the ground, and it keeps the moon in orbit around Earth and Earth around the sun. The nature of gravity was first described by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago. Now three centuries later and more than 200 miles above our home planet on the International Space Station, astronaut Don Pettit shares the thrill of concepts like gravity and trajectories with some help from Red Bird.

 You may view the video of Don Pettit at the link above or directly below.



Zz.

The Physics of Angry Birds

I have seen plenty of article on the physics employed in the wildly-popular app game "Angry Birds". I came across another one here that describes the kinematics and collisions that any intro physics student can understand.

I think that the kinematics part is rather trivial, but the subsequent collisions and "destruction" that follows can be quite complicated. That would have been a more interesting part that should be discussed in depth.

Zz.

London Science Museum's "Launchball"

Hey, this is not a bad game at all!

The London Science Museum launched (pun intended) a Flash-based webgame called "Launchball". It became popular enough that there is now an app for the iPhone.

Launchball is a physics puzzler where you need to get a ball from Point A to Point B using the tools at hand. These tools include fans, magnets, tesla coils, bunsen burners and much more. Each tool is introduced in sequential fashion during the introductory levels and in general feels much more accessible than similar games we've played. Once you set up the board as you want, you can press "start" to set the scene in motion to see if you've succeeded.

You can find the Flash-based web version of the game here.

Zz.

Acceleration Due to Gravity: Super Mario Brothers

OK, so I giggled through the whole time that I was reading this. This means that you have GOT to check it out.

This is an analysis of the gravitational acceleration g of the various versions of Super Mario Brothers game!!

I kid you not! :)

It's interesting how different versions of Super Mario Brothers have different values of g. They must have many brothers living in other planets.

You can make a physics lesson out of this. Since kids nowadays are addicted to video game in some fashion, why not make them learn physics at the same time!

Hey, it could happen! :)

Zz.