6 ms·

Show HN: Interactive physics simulations I built while teaching my daughter

87 points by anticlickwise 8mo ago

I started teaching my daughter physics by showing her how things actually work - plucking guitar strings to explain vibration, mixing paints to understand light, dropping objects to see gravity in action. She learned so much faster through hands-on exploration than through books or videos. That's when I realized: what if I could recreate these physical experiments as interactive simulations? Lumen is the result - an interactive physics playground covering sound, light, motion, life, and mechanics. Each module lets you manipulate variables in real-time and see/hear the results immediately. Try it: https://www.projectlumen.app/ https://www.projectlumen.app/

tetris11 8mo ago
This is pretty nice! I was quite impressed with the colour mixing one in particular (At the same time I was reminded a bit by the subtext of the web series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, especially when pumping the heart to deliver body's needed cargo, like aspic and white sauce -- but that's just my brainrot showing) I can imagine this being pretty fun on a tablet
- anticlickwise 8mo ago
  yes. This was designed for the Ipad
vibefarm 8mo ago
wholesome :)
spuz 8mo ago
Not sure if it's just Firefox, but a lot of things seem to be rendering incorrectly and very slowly for me. The text for the descriptions is very small compared to the rest of the text which makes it kind of hard to read. Also, on the Spectrum demo, the prism is displayed up and to the left of the light rays. After a few minutes the pages just grind to a halt so I can't really explore the rest.
- mzajc 8mo ago
  It's not just Firefox, a lot of things are broken. For example, clicking on either ball in "The Falls" moves it up and lets you drag it, but they snap into the same place. The text also reminds me of how ChatGPT writes. Was this made with a LLM?
languid-photic 8mo ago
Fun! Any plan to open source it?
rahimnathwani 8mo ago
Kudos! I love seeing things people have built for their kids. This reminds me a bit of this site, which has been around for a long time and has a similar motivation: teach physics concepts using simulations: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/filter?subjects=physics&type=html https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/filter?subjects=phy...
- tehlike 8mo ago
  Not the same level - but teaching my kid to use keyboard, and i vibecoded this: https://ai.studio/apps/drive/1MErVnhhK89peNh1RPa3y-ufFExG5BnqZ https://ai.studio/apps/drive/1MErVnhhK89peNh1RPa3y-ufFExG5Bn...
  - rahimnathwani 8mo ago
    This is cool! I'm curious whether you're using this to teach initial familiarity, or as the first step toward touch typing? For touch typing, I think Typing Club is a good place to start for kids. And then Keybr to develop full fluency. And then Monkeytype to develop speed. EDIT - when I wrote this comment I had only opened the link on my phone. Now I see it on desktop it's clear that the on-screen keyboard is intended to teach key positions without the user looking down at their keyboard. It's good.
  - mncharity 8mo ago
    In case anyone else was curious, `ai.studio/apps` apps apparently require a google account login by default. Google ai-mode says allowing public access is an author option, but then (1) API costs are borne by the author, and (2) there are some (unclear) compliance implications.
  - anticlickwise 8mo ago
    This is cool
thimkerbell 8mo ago
Extra points if its homepage can offer informative 80-character descriptions. (What is the term for this (suggested) web design?)
animanoir 8mo ago
[dead]
gfaure 8mo ago
I wish it were possible to link to a particular page (e.g. the optics simulation).
jastanton 8mo ago
Love this, simulations are great. My nit pick is around how fast these animations are. You blink and you miss it. I can imagine children having more difficult time with this than myself as an adult. (For context I started with the sound animations: The Invisible Dance -- Shape the Wave & The Journey)
- anticlickwise 8mo ago
  will work on slowing it down
admiralrohan 8mo ago
Looking great. Having some context on the pages would be great, I can understand the grass-rabbit-fox dynamics but not clear with the the rest of the simulations. And you can persist the page in query param. So someone can directly sent people to particular simulation with data.
- anticlickwise 8mo ago
  I am adding more context soon. I will work on the url query param persistence - I know its annoying at the moment
mncharity 8mo ago
Two quick errata: In Sound / Biology, a control inversion: low pitch (slider and sound) animates blue short hairs, and high pitch animates long red. In the windtunnel > Wing, lift is reported but the airstream remains undeflected.[1] [1] randomly, fwiw, I've used cloud deck slicing to illustrate downdraft, eg https://imgur.com/4hhZ7zq https://imgur.com/4hhZ7zq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HIddtgGzDE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HIddtgGzDE . Or perhaps moments of "yoink" like... err, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfY5ZQDzC5s&t=154s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfY5ZQDzC5s&t=154s .
- anticlickwise 8mo ago
  Yes. I will have to get the physics right for the air stream. will work on that. Thanks
nemath 8mo ago
Very cool!
imtringued 8mo ago
I spotted a bug: "The Tiny City > The Web" You should use the rabbit emoji instead: https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1F407 https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1F407
rajkumar14 8mo ago
Unrelated to the question you posted, but how are you testing these PCBs? Specifically, are you using any software architecture for data logging and running tests?

87 points by anticlickwise 8mo ago

tetris11 8mo ago

This is pretty nice! I was quite impressed with the colour mixing one in particular (At the same time I was reminded a bit by the subtext of the web series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, especially when pumping the heart to deliver body's needed cargo, like aspic and white sauce -- but that's just my brainrot showing) I can imagine this being pretty fun on a tablet

anticlickwise 8mo ago
yes. This was designed for the Ipad

vibefarm 8mo ago

wholesome :)

spuz 8mo ago

Not sure if it's just Firefox, but a lot of things seem to be rendering incorrectly and very slowly for me. The text for the descriptions is very small compared to the rest of the text which makes it kind of hard to read. Also, on the Spectrum demo, the prism is displayed up and to the left of the light rays. After a few minutes the pages just grind to a halt so I can't really explore the rest.

mzajc 8mo ago
It's not just Firefox, a lot of things are broken. For example, clicking on either ball in "The Falls" moves it up and lets you drag it, but they snap into the same place. The text also reminds me of how ChatGPT writes. Was this made with a LLM?

languid-photic 8mo ago

Fun! Any plan to open source it?

rahimnathwani 8mo ago

Kudos! I love seeing things people have built for their kids. This reminds me a bit of this site, which has been around for a long time and has a similar motivation: teach physics concepts using simulations: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/filter?subjects=physics&type=html https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/filter?subjects=phy...

tehlike 8mo ago
Not the same level - but teaching my kid to use keyboard, and i vibecoded this: https://ai.studio/apps/drive/1MErVnhhK89peNh1RPa3y-ufFExG5BnqZ https://ai.studio/apps/drive/1MErVnhhK89peNh1RPa3y-ufFExG5Bn...
- rahimnathwani 8mo ago
  This is cool! I'm curious whether you're using this to teach initial familiarity, or as the first step toward touch typing? For touch typing, I think Typing Club is a good place to start for kids. And then Keybr to develop full fluency. And then Monkeytype to develop speed. EDIT - when I wrote this comment I had only opened the link on my phone. Now I see it on desktop it's clear that the on-screen keyboard is intended to teach key positions without the user looking down at their keyboard. It's good.
- mncharity 8mo ago
  In case anyone else was curious, `ai.studio/apps` apps apparently require a google account login by default. Google ai-mode says allowing public access is an author option, but then (1) API costs are borne by the author, and (2) there are some (unclear) compliance implications.
- anticlickwise 8mo ago
  This is cool

thimkerbell 8mo ago

Extra points if its homepage can offer informative 80-character descriptions. (What is the term for this (suggested) web design?)

animanoir 8mo ago

[dead]

gfaure 8mo ago

I wish it were possible to link to a particular page (e.g. the optics simulation).

jastanton 8mo ago

Love this, simulations are great. My nit pick is around how fast these animations are. You blink and you miss it. I can imagine children having more difficult time with this than myself as an adult. (For context I started with the sound animations: The Invisible Dance -- Shape the Wave & The Journey)

anticlickwise 8mo ago
will work on slowing it down

admiralrohan 8mo ago

Looking great. Having some context on the pages would be great, I can understand the grass-rabbit-fox dynamics but not clear with the the rest of the simulations. And you can persist the page in query param. So someone can directly sent people to particular simulation with data.

anticlickwise 8mo ago
I am adding more context soon. I will work on the url query param persistence - I know its annoying at the moment

mncharity 8mo ago

Two quick errata: In Sound / Biology, a control inversion: low pitch (slider and sound) animates blue short hairs, and high pitch animates long red. In the windtunnel > Wing, lift is reported but the airstream remains undeflected.[1] [1] randomly, fwiw, I've used cloud deck slicing to illustrate downdraft, eg https://imgur.com/4hhZ7zq https://imgur.com/4hhZ7zq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HIddtgGzDE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HIddtgGzDE . Or perhaps moments of "yoink" like... err, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfY5ZQDzC5s&t=154s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfY5ZQDzC5s&t=154s .

anticlickwise 8mo ago
Yes. I will have to get the physics right for the air stream. will work on that. Thanks

nemath 8mo ago

Very cool!

imtringued 8mo ago

I spotted a bug: "The Tiny City > The Web" You should use the rabbit emoji instead: https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1F407 https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1F407

rajkumar14 8mo ago

Unrelated to the question you posted, but how are you testing these PCBs? Specifically, are you using any software architecture for data logging and running tests?