Last updated 15 September 2026
What Physics Arcade is
Physics Arcade is a free library of original browser-based physics games, together with long-form writing that explains the physics those games are built on. There are currently 30 games across six categories and 20 guides, and everything here was made for this site.
The games run in any modern browser. There is nothing to download, no plugin, no account and no sign-up. Open a page and play.
Why it exists
Physics games are unusually good at building intuition. Spend an hour with a game that rewards you for understanding that stored spring energy grows with the square of compression, and you will have a feel for that relationship that no diagram provides.
They are also, frequently, dishonest about it. Games are marketed as "realistic physics" when they are tuned approximations, and players end up with confident beliefs that are subtly wrong. Physics Arcade tries to do the opposite: build games that genuinely simulate something, then say clearly what they simulate and where the model stops.
That is why every game page has a Physics Mechanics section explaining what the simulation is doing, and why pages carry an explicit note about simplification. Real Physics vs Simplified Game Physics covers the subject in full.
How the games are made
All 30 games run on a single physics engine written specifically for this site — fourteen modules covering vectors, rigid bodies, collision detection and response, constraints, springs, particles and projectile motion. They also share one game shell, which is why pausing, restarting, sound, fullscreen, touch controls and local high scores behave identically everywhere.
That shared foundation is deliberate. It means a fix to the collision solver improves thirty games at once, and it means a player who learns the controls in one game already knows them in the next.
Levels are generated from fixed seeds, so the same level number is always the same layout. That matters for the puzzle games in particular: without determinism, a failed attempt teaches you nothing.
Originality
Every game concept, every line of code, all artwork and all written content on this site is original work created for Physics Arcade. No game here is a clone of an existing title, and no assets are borrowed, traced or derived from anyone else's work.
The artwork is generated procedurally from the game data, which is why each thumbnail reflects its game's actual physics mechanics rather than being decorative.
What we do not do
- No fake numbers. No invented player counts, no fabricated ratings, no aggregate review scores. The site has no rating system, so the structured data on game pages carries none.
- No global leaderboards. Scores are stored in your browser. A client-side game with an unverified server leaderboard ranks whoever tried hardest to falsify it.
- No dark patterns. No fake play buttons, no disguised advertising, no forced notifications, no countdowns that mean nothing.
- No accounts. There is nothing to sign up for, because the site does not need to know who you are.
Editorial approach
Written content is produced under a stated editorial persona, Alex Morgan, and follows a published editorial policy and fact-checking policy. Physical claims are checked against established educational sources, which are cited at the foot of each guide.
We do not claim academic credentials or professional certifications, because we do not have them to claim. What the guides offer is careful explanation, honest labelling of simplifications, and references you can follow to a proper source.
How the site is funded
Physics Arcade is supported by advertising. Ad containers are reserved in the page layout between content sections — never over a game canvas, never over the controls, and never disguised as part of a game.
The site is designed to be worth visiting without them. Every game is complete and free, every guide is complete and free, and nothing is gated.
Technology
Physics Arcade is a static site: plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, generated ahead of time and served as files. There is no backend, no database and no server-side processing of anything you do. That is why the site is fast, and it is also why your scores and favourites are stored in your own browser rather than on a server.
Get in touch
Corrections, bug reports and questions are all welcome — see the contact page. If something on this site is wrong, we would rather hear about it than not.