Wind Force - Fizziks Tilt Game
Surprisingly, the calculations done to compute the wind force coming out of the clouds are remarkably similar to the calculations
done to calculate gravitational forces. The primary differences are these:
- The force is away from the cloud instead of toward it
- The force lies in only one direction, unlike a planet.
The reasoning is as follows: Think of the burst of air coming out of the cloud as being in a cone shape - it spreads out the further away
from the cloud it gets. Thus, the further away from the cloud you are, the less air is hitting you. The radius of the cone varies directly
as the distance between the marble and the cloud. Therefore, the cross-sectional area of the cone varies directly as the square of the distance.
Thus, the force is inversely proportional to the square of the difference.
Of course, in the gravitational equation, we also have the masses of the objects and the gravitational constant, but since these are all constants, they are
both essentially inverse square relationships.
Note: In reality, this is only an approximation of a point source wind in one direction; a real cloud is not a point source.
Playing Fizziks Tilt
When you see a cloud in the Fizziks Tilt game, you won't know at first what direction it is blowing; you only find out when you get near it! It may be blowing
north, south, east or west.
Click An Object Below For More Information
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