The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has come up with a unique way to teach young kids (mostly) about physics through an interactive flash-based game based on real-time physics stimulation that you come across in everyday life. It’s called Simple Machines.

Twitch is a mini… well, Twitch is mini, but I’m not quite sure what he is. Anyway, Twitch is supposed to find various robotic parts that are missing and are required to complete the giant robot which are strewn all over the place.

There are several stages, each aiming to teach a basic physics concept. The inclined plane, the wheel and axel and the pulley, all things that we’ve learnt in high school.

Here, Twitch has to find a way to obtain a robot part which is on top of a very tall radio. Users can pick several items where Twitch can use to find his way up there.

I made Twitch choose the pencil as the inclined plane. Thank god he managed to get up there.

It is educational because they also teach you the concepts around the theory. The less steep the inclined plane, the less force it takes to get to the top, and vice versa. This way, it is tremendously easy to remember and learn physics.

At this particular stage, Twitch has to use the wheel and axel to roll over to the other side to collect all the nuts and bolts.

I picked a small wheel (Buttons, to be exact), and at the end they told me that using a bigger wheel would use less force. Cool! I myself did not know that.

It’s a really cool website. Go visit it at Simple Machines, Museum of Science