Change a setting. Watch what happens. Find out why.
What happens to acceleration when you change the mass? How does a lens form an image? Physics Explorer lets you investigate questions like these in an interactive Windows physics lab.
Adjust the controls, watch the diagrams and connect what you see to measurements and explanations. The essential learning content works offline, without an account.
>> Find Physics Explorer in Microsoft Store
Explore 16 experiments across five areas
Move between familiar ideas and experiments that give you something new to investigate:
- Forces and motion: net force, acceleration and one-dimensional collisions.
- Gravity and orbits: projectile motion and Newtonian circular orbits.
- Waves: traveling waves and fixed-end standing waves.
- Particles and matter: ideal gases and diffusion.
- Light and optics: reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, lenses, prism dispersion, camera focus and a telescope.
Labeled controls, units and quantitative readouts help you connect a change in the apparatus to a change in the result.
Slow the experiment down
Six time-based experiments include Play, Pause, Restart and playback-speed controls. Stop at a useful moment, change a setting or run the experiment again.
The displayed time scale connects screen time to experiment time, and the measurements follow the same model as the animation. You can compare what is moving with what the numbers say.
Follow a question through to an explanation
Prefer some structure? Work through 32 guided investigations built around prediction, manipulation, observation, explanation and application.
Then try 16 challenges with measurable goals or answer 64 questions with explanations and retry options. A 20-concept library adds context, common misconceptions and the assumptions behind the models.
The aim is to understand the result, not simply reach a correct answer.
Keep experiments worth returning to
Save a named configuration when you find a useful comparison or an interesting result. Local Field notes keep bookmarks and completed activities, while current bench settings are saved so you can return to them later.
No cloud account or synchronization is involved.
Start with one variable
- Choose an experiment from Home.
- Predict what will happen when you change one setting.
- Adjust it and compare the diagram with the measurements.
- Read the explanation or open a guided investigation to go further.
Before you step into the lab
Is this a precision simulator?
No. Physics Explorer is an educational laboratory, not a precision engineering instrument. Experiments explain their assumptions and limits. Particle activities use classical gas and diffusion models, not quantum mechanics or individual molecular collisions. Optical activities use simplified geometric models.
Can I use it offline?
Yes. The experiments and explanations are bundled with the app. Optional further-reading links open your browser.
Does it have advertising or telemetry?
No. There are no ads, app telemetry, accounts or cloud synchronization.
What do I need?
An x64 PC running Windows 10 version 2004, build 19041, or later, with a keyboard and mouse or equivalent Windows input. The interface and learning content are in English.