Line Rider!
Okay, this is a little Flash game that’s totally awesome - draw on the screen, and a little sled man then follows your lines as if going down a rather complicated (and usually bumpy) ski slope. It’s called Line Rider - check it out, and particularly some of the very complex machines that others have made!
Aside from just being very cool, it’s actually a simple implementation of a very cool concept - MIT’s Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation (thanks, Brett!). In this video, they use a “smart” whiteboard to control a computer, and draw basic physics diagrams which the computer interprets and then animates according to basic laws of physics! It’s pretty impressive - my favourite is the final demonstration where he puts marbles on various slopes and gets them to land in a cup.
Do I think such a thing is actually useful? Well, it’s probably not so useful for introductory physics - we pretty much know what a cart does when it rolls down a slope. And it’s probably not so much use for a “real” engineer or researcher - it’s probably not precise enough, but it might be good for a “proof of concept”, quick sketch kind of application. But it might be good for making diagrams for mid-level students - connect up a bunch of springs, ropes and levers, and get an intuitive feel for what should happen. And if nothing else, perhaps it will inspire some more classroom enthusiasm!
Line Rider is certainly a fascinating game. It’s incredible what some people have manage to come up with. Check out some of the Line Rider videos.