Trailers

  

Mass vs. Weight

The primary objective of this lesson is to understand the concepts of mass and weight through personal experience. Bang into boxes. Roll the balls around the room. Alter gravity, and repeat your tour!

In this short clip, the player explores the environment by pushing the balls and boxes around to determine which weighs more. After completing a little scientific inquiry, gravity is changed to demonstrate how the avatar reacts under different circumstances, jumping much higher at low gravity than at higher gravity.

 
 

Inertia & Acceleration

Explore how riding an elevator up and down can affect how heavy your avatar feels as inertia takes hold. You can may also want to try jumping up and down on the elevator, or even jumping off the elevator while it is moving!

In this short clip, the player takes a ride up a 1,000 meter elevator, reaching speeds of 50 meters/second. Numeric cues show the upward and downward velocity of the elevator, as well as the avatar's apparent weight as acceleration changes during the ride. How does the avatar's weight change as the elevator velocity changes?

During the trip, the player experiments with the camera controls. Four camera views are available a first-person view, downward view, upward view and a long view. While riding in the elevator, the long view is helpful in watching how the avatar and elevator react.

On the downward trip, the avatar finds a shiny red button -- impossible to resist. A quick push results in a catastophic failure, sending the elevator and its passenger hurtling back to the ground. The environment does not model air resistance, so both elevator and passenger continue accelerating until the final crash landing. A quick click of the elevator Call button resets the environment for another ride.


Supported by the NSF   through the   NSDL.   Based at Columbia University epic.