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michaelkennedy

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  1. michaelkennedy
    In World of Tanks, you are the driver of a tank on a large battlefield. Your main weapon is your cannon, which fire shells. The games internal physics engine makes the shells obey the laws of projectile motion, giving them a parabolic flight path. Gravity pulls them down, and air resists their forward motion which is similar to my blog on the physics of sniping in Battlefield. Another aspect of physics in battlefield is the suspension the tank tracks have to prevent damage from falls. The longer a collision takes, the more spread out the force will be so that it is not all at once. Therefore, the suspension allows the tank to remain intact after a high impact collision with the ground. 

     

  2. michaelkennedy
    In Roller Coaster Tycoon, your main goal is to build an amusement park with the coolest rides to get the most profit possible. Your main weapon in your arsenal is the rollercoaster of course, which relies on a basic principle of physics to work. The carts are pulled up to the top of a hill by a chain system similar to that of a bike, and are then released at the top and fly down the hill at immense speeds. This is because of the law of conservation of energy. As the carts are pulled higher, their gravitational potential energy (pe=mgh) is rising. As they fly down the hill, the potential energy is converted to kinetic (ke=1/2mv^2). Aside from the physics of it all, rollercoasters are just another great application of physics in the everyday world.
  3. michaelkennedy
    The Nuclear bomb is believe it or not one of the main weapons in Fallout 4, but ironically is also the cause of the game. The Physics behind Nuclear bombs is extremely complicated, but in this blog I will try to explain it as best as I can. The immense energy behind a nuclear explosion can be attributed to nuclear fission, which is the splitting of atoms. In a nukes case, it is most likely Uranium - 235. Two masses of highly pure Uranium 235 are positioned perfectly so that when they collide they start a chain reaction unleashing massive amount of energy in the form of an explosion. The masses collide extremely fast in order to keep the time of fission short, so that the explosion is as powerful as possible. This was the type of nuke dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 which killed so many people and caused destruction never before seen by man. The initial explosion wasn't the only terrible thing to happen however, because after the explosion massive amounts of radiation remained which made the area and its surroundings uninhabitable. Fallout 4 does a great job of recreating a barren wasteland which the player can easily tell has been ravaged by a nuclear bomb.
     <--------- Nuclear Fission of Uranium-235
  4. michaelkennedy
    In Nightfire there is a rocket launcher that fires homing missiles. These missiles follow their target until they hit a surface and explode. How they do this is based off the principle that warm bodies emit infrared light, therefore if a rocket were to follow infrared emissions it would most likely be following a body. Homing missiles are so effective that 90% of all US air force losses can be attributed to them. In order to change directions mid flight, it adjusts the direction of its rear thruster according to the direction the infrared light was received. This is done so quickly that the missile has smooth turns and adjusts its flight path at almost the same time its target does. In Nightfire, this creates a weapon that is pretty much unavoidable unless you disappear into a building or behind a safe wall.
  5. michaelkennedy
    In Call of Duty Black Ops 3, you are able to run on walls for a short period of time. Though this is unrealistic, humans are actually able to run vertically up walls for a quite impressive distance. This is due to the force of friction. When you make contact with the wall with your hands and feet, you push them downwards in order to imbalance the forces. If the force of friction is greater than the force of gravity, you will be propelled upward when you run up the wall. This means that the force upwards is greater than the force of gravity downwards, causing a net force upwards accelerating you up the wall. However, you cannot run far up a wall from a stationary position. You must first get a running start in order to build up speed, energy and momentum which can then be used to get even higher. 
     

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