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The Science 360

Learn by doing

Simulations

Change one thing, see what happens. Each simulation comes with a plain-language guide to the physics behind it.

Earth orbiting a glowing star inside a green habitable-zone ring Space Interactive

What if we replace the Sun?

Space · 9 min guide
A spinning ring-shaped space station seen from above with a tiny person on the rim and a curving ball trail Space Interactive

Spin a space station: artificial gravity

Space · 9 min guide
Mars as a rust-red disc with a thin glowing atmosphere Space Interactive

Could we terraform Mars?

Space · 8 min guide
A muon falling 15 km beside survival curves with and without relativity Physics Interactive

The muon paradox

Relativity · 9 min guide
A black hole drawn as a black disc with a glowing rim inside a dashed comparison ring Space Interactive

How small can you squeeze it?

Space · 8 min guide
A planet on an elliptical orbit around a glowing star with two shaded wedges of equal area Physics Interactive

Orbits and Kepler’s laws

Space · 7 min guide
The Milky Way drawn at true scale from the scale of the universe zoom Space Interactive

Scale of the universe

Scale · 8 min guide
Earth and Jupiter beside the Sun at true relative scale Planets Interactive

Planet and star size comparison

Size · 8 min guide
A person standing on each of six worlds from Pluto to the Sun, drawn taller where gravity is stronger Planets Interactive

Weight on other planets

Gravity · 8 min guide
A gibbous Moon beside a top-down diagram of the Sun, Earth and Moon orbit with eight phase icons Space Interactive

Moon phases: why does the Moon change shape?

Space · 8 min guide
Earth at four points on its orbit with a fixed tilted axis beside a globe split into day and night Space Interactive

Why do we have seasons?

Earth · 9 min guide
A side view of the Moon’s tilted orbit and Earth’s shadow above a total solar eclipse with its corona Space Interactive

Solar and lunar eclipse simulator

Space · 10 min guide
Earth seen from above the pole with two ocean bulges lined up with the Moon, next to a two-day tide curve Earth Interactive

How do tides work?

Earth · 8 min guide
A spacecraft on an elliptical transfer orbit from Earth to Mars beside a chart of fuel cost for every launch date Space Interactive

How long does it take to get to Mars?

Space · 9 min guide
A one-stage and a two-stage rocket with fuel gauges beside bars comparing their speed change to what orbit needs Space Interactive

Rocket equation: why is orbit so hard?

Space · 9 min guide
A glowing arc leaving a cannon beside a fainter 45 degree arc and a graph of range against launch angle Physics Interactive

Projectile motion simulator: which angle goes farthest?

Mechanics · 8 min guide
A brass pendulum bob swinging from a mount with energy bars and a phase-plane loop Physics Interactive

Pendulum period formula and simple pendulum simulator

Mechanics · 9 min guide
A square of glowing atoms, some decayed to faint rings, beside the exponential half-life curve Physics Interactive

Half-life and radioactive decay simulator

Nuclear · 9 min guide
A beam of light through two slits onto a screen with a brightness graph of bright and dark fringes Quantum Interactive

Double slit experiment: waves, particles and watching the slits

Quantum · 8 min guide
A spacetime diagram with the home twin’s straight world line and the traveller’s bent one Relativity Interactive

The twin paradox: how much younger does the traveller return?

Relativity · 9 min guide
A light ray bending as it enters water, with the reflected ray, the normal and the angle arcs Light Interactive

Snell’s law: how light bends, reflects and gets trapped

Light · 9 min guide
Physics Coming soon

How body shape changes lift

Physics