Last updated 15 September 2026
What gets checked
Three distinct kinds of claim appear on this site, and each is verified differently.
- Real-world physics. Statements about how the physical world behaves — that gravity accelerates all masses equally, that a pendulum's period depends on length and not mass, that momentum is conserved in collisions.
- Game behaviour. Statements about what a game on this site does — its restitution values, its gravity strength, what triggers a failure.
- Technical claims. Statements about how browsers, canvas rendering or physics engines work.
How real-world physics is checked
Physical claims are verified against established educational sources before publication. We use university physics department material, NASA educational resources and comparable references. Each guide lists the sources consulted at its foot, with links.
Where a claim is a standard result — the pendulum period formula, the projectile range equation, the definition of restitution — it is checked against at least one such source and stated in the form that source uses.
Where a claim is a derived consequence, such as "stopping distance grows with the square of speed", the derivation is stated alongside it so a reader can check the reasoning themselves rather than trusting us.
How game behaviour is checked
Claims about the games on this site are verified against the game code, because we wrote it. When a page says a surface has a restitution of 0.86, that is the value in the source. When a page says a chain reaction stops because energy is lost at each contact, that is what the solver does.
These values change occasionally as games are tuned. When a documented value changes, the page is updated.
Distinguishing the two
This is the most important part of the policy, and the easiest thing for a games site to get wrong.
Our standard
Physics Arcade games use simplified, tuned physics built for playability. They are not scientific simulations: forces, masses and timings are chosen because they feel good at 60 frames per second, not because they match measured values. Where a game departs from real-world behaviour in a way that matters, the game page says so.
Specifically, we take care to say which of these applies to any given statement:
- Faithful relationship, tuned value. Most of the site. Gravity genuinely accelerates all masses equally; the number is chosen so a screen-height fall takes about a second.
- Deliberate departure. Some games use physically impossible values because they make better puzzles — perfectly elastic walls, bumpers that return more energy than they receive. These are always labelled.
- Simplified model. Buoyancy and fluid behaviour in particular are flattened enormously. The pages that use them say so on the page and on screen.
A reader who finishes a guide believing that game gravity is 9.8 metres per second squared has been misled. A reader who finishes believing it is about 1,500 in game units, chosen so a fall feels right, has learned something true.
What we will not publish
- Invented statistics, studies or survey results
- Fabricated quotes or attributions
- Invented experts, reviewers or testimonials
- Player counts, download figures or popularity rankings we cannot measure
- Ratings or review scores, since the site has no rating system
- Claims about third-party games we have not verified
Reporting an error
If something on this site is wrong, tell us at editorial@physicsarcade.xyz. The most useful reports name the page, quote the claim and say what is wrong with it. A link to a source is welcome but not required — if you think something is off, that is worth telling us even without a citation.
How corrections are handled
- The report is checked against sources, and against the game code where relevant.
- If the claim is wrong, it is corrected promptly.
- If the error was substantive, a correction note is added to the page and the updated date changes.
- If the claim turns out to be correct, we reply explaining why, with the source.
Corrections are not made silently when the original could have misled a reader. A quiet edit protects the site's appearance at the reader's expense, which is the wrong trade.
Limits of this policy
This is a games site with an educational sideline, not a physics journal. The guides here are not peer reviewed, and they deliberately simplify. They are intended to build accurate intuition and to point you at better sources, not to replace a textbook or a course.
If you are studying physics formally, use these guides for intuition and your course material for everything else. Where the two disagree, your course material is right.