Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Interactive physics simulations I built while teaching my daughter
I started teaching my daughter physics by showing her how things actually work - plucking guitar strings to explain vibration, mixing paints to understand light, dropping objects to see gravity in action. She learned so much faster through hands-on exploration than through books or videos. That's when I realized: what if I could recreate these physical experiments as interactive simulations? Lumen is the result - an interactive physics playground covering sound, light, motion, life, and mechanics. Each module lets you manipulate variables in real-time and see/hear the results…
Lumen is an interactive physics playground that simulates real-world experiments across sound, light, motion, life, and mechanics. Users manipulate variables in real-time to observe immediate results, making abstract… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier.
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Interactive notes for algebra based physics with explorable explanations
2020 · landgreen.github.io · its alternatives →
- 2A2
2017 · htmlpreview.github.io · its alternatives →
- 3
I was wondering how I can arrange objects along a spherical helix path, and read some articles on it. I ended up learning about parametric equations again, and make this visualization to document what I learned: https://visualrambling.space/moving-objects-in-3d/ feel free to visit and let me know what you think!
2025 · visualrambling.space · its alternatives →
- 4
2020 · pakastin.github.io · its alternatives →
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Interactive experiments on Physics and Math for K-12 program
2021 · inventic.tech · its alternatives →
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I built a synthesizer based on 3D physicsfree tier, from $99/mo▲512I've been working on the Anukari 3D Physics Synthesizer for a little over two years now. It's one of the earliest virtual instruments to rely on the GPU for audio processing, which has been incredibly challenging and fun. In the end, predictably, the GUI for manipulating the 3D system actually ended up being a lot more work than the physics simulation. So far I am only selling it direct on my website, which seems to be working well. I hope to turn it into a sustainable business, and ideally I'd have enough revenue to hire folks to help with it. So far it's been 99% a solo project, with…
2025 · anukari.com · its alternatives →
- 7IB
2022 · multiplanetary.website · its alternatives →
- 8IB
Mar 2026 · structuredlabs.github.io · its alternatives →
- 9GI
Just for fun and self education, I've built this over a weekend to teach myself why orbits exist, not just show planets going around. Something that was never clearly explain to me in school. It opens with a guided tour that builds the idea up step by step: two bodies and the equal/opposite force, inertia (the Sun is removed and Earth just drifts straight), then "an orbit is falling and continuously missing," cosmic velocities with a little rocket, Voyager 1 & 2's real gravity assists (the clock runs the actual 1977–1989 dates so the planets orbit into their grand-tour alignment and the…
Jun 2026 · qunabu.github.io · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, I’m a chemical engineer and I manage logistics at a refinery down in Texas. Whenever I try to explain downstream operations to people outside the industry (including my kids), I usually get blank stares. I wanted to build something that visualizes the concepts and chemistry of a plant without completely dumbing down the science, so I put together this 5-minute browser game. Here's a simple runthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is-moBz6upU. I pushed to get through a full product pathway to show the V-804 replay. I am not a software developer by trade, so I relied…
Mar 2026 · fuelingcuriosity.com · its alternatives →
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Free course on how the world works from the YouTube star.
2015 · its alternatives →
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A colorful interactive physics simulator with thousands of balls, but in your terminal! - minimaxir/ballin
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16PP
2018 · codepen.io · its alternatives →
- 17
2021 · cselab.github.io · its alternatives →
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Fluid simulation in liquidfun-wasm
2021 · birchlabs.co.uk · its alternatives →
- 19AS
I really like the look of the famous album art for Unknown Pleasures [1]. It was originally created by Harold Craft at the Arecibo Observatory from the signals of the first discovered radio pulsar [2]. I made a spectrogram that produces a similar look. It runs FFT in Rust and visualizes it with WebGL. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UnknownPleasuresVinyl.jpg [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1919%2B21
2024 · aestuans.github.io · its alternatives →
- 20AT
I've been building prototypes of new AI learning tools for months, but I recently learned that 3blue1brown open sourced his incredible math animation library, Manim, and that LLMs could generate code for it without any fine-tuning. So I made a tool that automatically generates animated math/science explanations in the style of 3blue1brown using Manim from any text prompt. Try it yourself at https://TMA.live (no signup required) or see the demo video here: https://x.com/i/status/1874948287759081608 The UX is pretty simple right now, you just write a…
2025 · tma.live · its alternatives →
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A pretty simple but fun to play with simulator for a concept from mathematical physics called the "2D Coulomb gas". I originally made this for my Bachelor's thesis to create pretty pictures and build intuition but have recently gotten it a fresh coat of paint and better performance curtesy of WebGPU acceleration (ported with liberal help from Codex to get through all of the boilerplate). Play around with it - hopefully read up more on the 2D Coulomb gas because it is an incredibly deep topic research wise.
Feb 2026 · simonhalvdansson.github.io · its alternatives →
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Just finished a super-nerdy amateur hobby project: An exhibit and website to show kids how cool mechanisms are! Sadly, kids don't get much tangible experience with machines anymore. Ideally, this exhibit will inspire some to explore engineering, even if they are not "book learners". The website provides content to back up the exhibit, with videos and 3D printing files. The project is inspired by engineering exhibits from the past. Check out the research page for more. The project will be open-sourced to enable people to make their own and extend it. If you want to collaborate, LMK. --Steve
2025 · mechanical-library.org · its alternatives →
- 23EW
2020 · exophysics.net · its alternatives →
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Pure C# 3D real time physics simulation library, now with a higher version number. - bepu/bepuphysics2
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →