# Playground Physics

> Physics education app for analyzing motion through video recording and interactive graphs. (iPhone/iPad app by New York Hall of Science.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playground-physics/id947124790 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [New York Hall of Science](https://appshunter.io/developer/947124789)
- Category: Education, Photo & Video
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 5 App Store ratings · 15 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 45 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2015-08-17
- Data updated: 2026-06-11
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playground-physics/id947124790/reviews.md

## What is Playground Physics?

Discover and explore the physics in your own movements. Record a video of you or your friends, tap points along the way to trace a path of motion, and discover the motion, forces, and energy involved.

Educators can make Newton’s Laws of motion come alive with an app that was named one of Fast Company’s Top 10 mobile apps! Join a community of educators making inspiring learning experiences with Noticing Tools. 

“Playground Physics is one of the most fun units that I’ve done in a long time. I’ve been teaching about 12 years, and everybody had a great time.” - Stacey, 8th grade science teacher

In Playground Physics, you can: 

* Record a video of a performance or choose a stock video.
* Tap points along the video to trace a path of motion.
* Examine your performance closely with scrubbing video controls.
* Enter known measurements (height of an object, mass of the object being tracked) in English or metric units to reveal accurate data of your performance.
* Explore interactive, scrubbable graphs synchronized to the video playback. Graphs display the distance traveled and speed along the path in horizontal and vertical vectors.
* Add stickers to mark important moments in the performance (and for a laugh!).
* Play your video back in slow motion to closely examine your movements.
* Explore how distance, speed, and direction changes when things move. 
* Understand how a person's or object's potential and kinetic energy change as they move.
* Save your performance as videos with data overlays or editable scenes.
* Share your performance videos or transfer editable scenes to other cloud services and apps through use of the Files app.

Ideal for middle and high school school science classrooms, Playground Physics and accompanying curriculum activities are aligned to and embody the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) by integrating core ideas, scientific practices, cross-cutting concepts, and delight! The new 2023 edition of the curriculum is freely available at: https://noticing.nysci.org/apps/playground-physics/

Playground Physics is one of the Noticing Tools (TM) from the New York Hall of Science. The full suite includes Choreo Graph, Fraction Mash, Size Wise, Volumize, and Picture Dots.

Noticing Tools were developed in collaboration with Local Projects, an award-winning media design firm based in New York. http://localprojects.com/

## Key features

- Record and analyze motion in videos
- Trace paths and examine movement
- Interactive scrubbable graphs
- Slow-motion playback
- Calculate forces and energy
- Save and share performance videos

## Recent user reviews (10 of 15)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playground-physics/id947124790/reviews.md

### 1/5 — This app is trash

*2022-04-27*

Don’t get this app ur a loser if u play this

### 4/5 — Helpful option

*2021-11-01, version 1.4.2*

I’m a high school physics teacher, and this app is better than anything else free out there on mobile. I like that students can upload videos they took previously, but just watch out bc it only accepts landscape orientation.  I also would really like to see some slow mo options, because the time intervals aren’t adjustable, so it works best on fairly slow moving objects. Otherwise, works well.

### 1/5 — Bruh

*2021-02-18, version 1.4.1*

This game is trash, I don’t even know how to play it, fix your game cause playgrounds is good.

### 1/5 — School made me do use this

*2021-02-15*

I hate school, period.

### 1/5 — Terrible

*2021-02-10*

This app is terrible, coming in at one star. You are a nerd if you get this.

### 4/5 — It is suitable for using this app in STEM activities.

*2020-05-29, version 1.2.3*

But, the video that is recorded by iPad is not really clear and there is an error whenI try to import an existing video that I shot by my phone and sent it to ipad.

### 3/5 — Very good app, but it haves some errors

*2019-10-20*

When I want to edit a video to put the dots, it say’s (error it couldn’t save to the camera roll because the app doesn’t have permission) but I enabled the access, I deleted and downloaded the app like 3 times and still keeps saying the same. I think it could be good an little actualization for IOS 13.

### 5/5 — Very precise timer and great for analysing motion!

*2019-04-08, version 1.2.3*

Useful and accurate video capture that worked well with motion practicals. Was great when confirming the Law of Conservation of Momentum using gliders and a linear air track.

### 5/5 — Works great for high school conceptual physics student use

*2018-04-08, version 1.2.3*

I've been searching for an app that my students can use more accurately time motion of falling objects and rolling objects, and pendulum motion. This is simple to use,quick to learn, and even gives average velocity between multiple points on a video.   Cool speedometer on screen, and on screen graph of speed between multiple point.

### 4/5 — Pas mal mais manque quelques fonctions essentielles

*2018-04-08*

Super, mais il manque a mon sens
- possibilité d’activer le mode ralenti de l’appareil photo de l’iPad
- zoom sur la vidéo pour placer les points précisément
- calcul de l’accélération
- graphe montrant ensemble énergie potentielle, énergie cinétique et leur somme

## Frequently asked questions about Playground Physics

### What is Playground Physics?

Playground Physics is an educational app that allows users to record videos of motion, trace paths, and analyze the physics involved, such as forces and energy. It is designed to make learning Newton's Laws engaging for students.

### How does Playground Physics help with learning?

The app facilitates learning by providing tools to visualize and quantify motion. Users can examine movement in slow motion, view synchronized graphs of distance and speed, and understand how energy changes over time, aligning with Next Generation Science Standards.

### Is Playground Physics free to use?

Yes, Playground Physics is completely free to download and use. The accompanying curriculum activities are also freely available online.

### What devices does Playground Physics support?

Playground Physics is currently supported on iPad devices. It is developed by the New York Hall of Science.

### How often is Playground Physics updated?

The latest version of Playground Physics is 1.4.6, which was last updated on March 23, 2023. This indicates regular updates to improve the application.

### Can I use Playground Physics offline?

The provided information does not specify offline capabilities. However, video recording and analysis features typically require device functionality that may be available offline.

### What is the age rating for Playground Physics?

Playground Physics has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of users, including younger students and educators.

### Does Playground Physics have ads?

No, Playground Physics does not contain advertisements. It is a free application developed by the New York Hall of Science.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.4.6 — 2023-03-23

1. The return of turtle mode! You can now play your video back in slow motion using the turtle button in the bottom right corner of the screen. When selected, turtle mode will turn green. 
2. General optimization for iOS 16.

### 1.4.3 — 2022-01-13

Optimizes the delete video function for latest versions of iPad OS.

### 1.4.2 — 2021-06-25

-Updates to the video import feature to ensure access to the camera roll/photo album so videos can be imported from the device local storage

### 1.4.1 — 2020-06-18

- New ways to save and share your performance: as a video with data overlays in your device camera roll, as a video with data overlays in other cloud services and apps accessible through the Files app, and as an editable scene that can be exported to other devices running Playground Physics using the Files app and AirDrop
- An updated app help guide page with an overview of the new ways to save and share your performances with the Files app
- Optimized for iOS 12+

### 1.2.3 — 2017-11-28

Updated and optimized for iOS11

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## More apps by New York Hall of Science

- [Size Wise - NYSCI](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/size-wise-nysci/id952801800)
- [Choreo Graph](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/choreo-graph/id952808994)
- [Volumize](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/volumize/id952809603)
- [Fraction Mash](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fraction-mash/id952817654)
- [Picture Dots](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/picture-dots/id1225538365)

All apps by New York Hall of Science: https://appshunter.io/developer/947124789

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-11.*