"Physics of Osmos" Video Contest!

Posted by on Nov 18, 2011 in Love, Osmos | 2 Comments

I should start by saying that Osmos is the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on: it’s received tons of love and wonderful feedback from fans and reviewers alike, has won a bunch of amazing awards, over a million people have played it, and it’s been a pleasure in and of itself to create.

But, if there’s one outstanding Osmos-wish that we’d love to see fulfilled, it’s to see the game used for physics education. For those who have played it, the physics & math inspirations in Osmos are clear (in particular: Newton’s laws of motion and orbital mechanics, but other subjects as well), and this is something near and dear to our hearts.

So, when we saw a recent blog post by Andrew Vanden Heuvel, (an online physics & astronomy teacher with the Michigan Virtual School,) basing a physics lesson on Osmos, we were delighted! In it, he asked students to experiment – looking for physics concepts that could be demonstrated using Osmos as their laboratory – calling people to post videos of these demonstrations.

We thought this was awesome. So we got in touch, offering to “sweeten” the pot and give out some prizes for the best videos. Andrew went one better and created a new website dedicated to the “Physics of Osmos”, and just announced the contest!

First prize is a $500 gift card to Amazon.com (which can be used for books, a tablet, or whatever you like really)! There will be three runner-up prizes as well. All the details, including eligibility, can be found on the contest page itself.

Yay, physics! :)

2 Comments

  1. Michael
    December 20, 2011

    Hi Guys. It’s great to see how this excellent game is being used for education. Naturally I have some very specific ideas as to what I think your next title should be (*cough* science fiction/adventure game in which the orbital mechanics concept is central *cough*) but you’re the game developers, and you’re obviously busy ;) One of my passions is music composition and orchestration (see my website) I’d love to hear from you if you need any help.

  2. Tom Louie
    January 25, 2012

    I love the orbit levels! The first time I played them, I thought, “Cool, Hohmann transfer orbits!”

    Tom