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Justin Gallagher

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  1. Justin Gallagher
    Today my fellow phys-x students, I will discuss how well the game Space Engineers simulates Newtonian physics. Long story short, it simulates real world physics very closely. First of all, what is Space Engineers? Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction and maintenance of space works. Players build space ships and space stations of various sizes and utilization (civil and military), pilot ships and perform asteroid mining. Space Engineers utilizes a realistic volumetric-based physics engine: all objects can be assembled, disassembled, damaged and destroyed. We will be looking at the destroy part of it all.

    The developers made the game to follow newtons laws, which means that it can represent momentum, the product of the mass and velocity of an object, as well as impulse, the integral of a force with respect to time. If you build a massive star ship, and crash a small fighter into it, the star ship is barely affected by the crash. Depending on the proportion of the masses, the star ship will respond by moving at a very slow pace. If you we to push the fighter slowly against the ship and continue to exert force, the star ship will accelerate. If you were to crash the star ship into the small fighter, well... lets just say you may not want to be in the fighter due to some...obvious reasons. Here is a cool video on the crashing of ships, and how it represents momentum.




    All in all, Space Engineers is a very good game, and with the use of multiplayer LAN, it would be fun to use in the classroom. *Cough Cough*. I seem to have developed a symptom with requires me to cough through text. *COUGH COUGH*
  2. Justin Gallagher
    With the Competition at the end of the month, I started looking at how trebuchets work. However, first we should look at why they are diffrent from Catapults

    Catapults generally used a large, springy piece of wood which would have been wound up. This then give tension to the wood and when released the arm pulls up and hits a stop then releasing the projectile.

    Trebuchets, in contrast, use a weight which pull down a lever arm, launching it up into the air. A sling is attached which then released the projectile. Trebuchets are generally capable of hurling great amounts of weight and became much more common in medieval warfare in later years.

    A trebuchet consists of five basic parts: the frame, counterweight, beam, sling and guide chute.
    The frame supports the other components and provides a raised platform from which to drop the counterweight.
    The counterweight, pulled by gravity alone, rotates the beam. The beam pulls the sling.
    The guide chute guides the sling through the frame and supports the enclosed projectile until acceleration is sufficient to hold it in the sling.
    The sling accelerates and holds the projectile until release.

    One end of the sling is fixed to the end of the beam, while the other is tied in a loop and slipped over a release pin extending from the end of the beam. As the beam rotates, it pulls the sling, with its enclosed projectile, down the guide chute. As the sling exits the chute, it accelerates in an arc away from the beam, but because the beam is still pulling the sling behind, the loop is held on the pin. The sling continues accelerating through its arc until it eventually swings ahead of the release pin. At this point, known as the release angle, the loop slips off the pin and the sling opens releasing the projectile.

    To get deep into the physics, watch this video...

  4. Justin Gallagher
    Hopefully, anyone who is reading this understands the basic concept behind walking. If not, then google it because I will not cover that topic. What I am here for is to talk about the physic defying ways to travel in Team Fortress 2, a video game created by Valve Software. The game includes nine playable characters, but today we will be focusing on only one class, the Scout.


    The Scout is fast-talking, cocky, baseball fan and street runner from Boston, Massachusetts. He is a fast, agile character, armed with a scattergun, a pistol and an aluminum baseball bat. What is interesting about the Scout is that he is capable of performing the infamous Double Jump, A move so legendary, so bold, that is has been seen in many other video games. The Double Jump defys Newton's First Law of Motion: When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force. In this case, the Scout says screw it and jumps while in midair without the aid of an external force. When you equip the scout with a baseball bat called the the Atomizer, it magically gives him the ability to triple Jump. If you give him a pisol called the Winger, He now can jump 25% higher. This absolutely makes no sense when you try to even comprehend it. However, it gets a little better. In the Game there is a shotgun called the Force Of Nature. Its recoil is so unbelievably god-like that when you shoot it in mid air, it propels the scout in a direction that is opposite of the shot, Thus Following Newtons Third Law of Motion: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body. Here is an interesting video to see it in action:



    As you can see, the scout does not like to follow all of the rules that governs our universe, however, due to this, its allows for some very interesting game play.
  5. Justin Gallagher
    Hey PhysX students that will be reading this. Let me give a brief description of my self. I enjoy Physics, DUH, I love to play Frisbee with my friends, enjoy riding my bike, and playing Video Games, KSP being one of them. I am taking Physics this year because I love the challenge and the hypothetical theories that we get into. I can't wait to start physics with calculus, as well as play Kerbal Space Program and conquer the solar system. I am most anxious about being overwhelmed in work, but will truck on through it. I hope to have a fun year I physics. Lets have a great year and do a lot of FDcosθ.

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