Archive for 14 November 2007

Crayon Physics

Posted: 14 November 2007 in Uncategorized
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I stumbled on this the other day. The game is called Crayon Physics and it’s pretty much what it sounds like. You can make a crayon drawing of simple shapes like squares and circles and curves. The objects you create begin obeying the laws of physics (gravity and Newton’s laws of motion mainly). So a square drawn in the air falls to the ground. A circle drawn on a slope begins to roll. The first version is pretty simple. On each level you have to move the ball to the star. You can drop things on the ball to get it to roll, you can set up obstacles, build bridges, etc. It’s ingenious.

The next version will hopefully roll out soon. No telling though since it’s a guy working in his spare time. But looks to be excruciatingly cool.  Watch me play one level while trying to record it on my cell phone.

Rosetta

Posted: 14 November 2007 in Uncategorized
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The second fantastic photo of Earth from space I’ve come across in as many days was taken by the Rosetta comet probe sent up by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Rosetta craft made big news recently when it was mistaken for an asteroid that was going to make a near-Earth pass. The Minor Planet Center failed to cross check the object against known probes and so sent out an alarm before realizing their mistake. Rosetta is using the Earth as a slingshot to propel it into the outer solar system (4.4 billion miles) to the Comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After that it will return to Earth for another gravitational slingshot.

Earth as seen by the Rosetta probe.