Comparison

Physics Playgrounds vs Physics Playground App

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Physics Playgrounds

Features
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Physics Playground is a hands-on science app with 102 interactive labs — from pendulums and black holes to rainbows, magnets and melting ice. Every lab is a live simulation you control with your finger, or with your hand in the air, so you can see how the world works instead of just reading about it. THREE WAYS TO EXPLORE • Explore — pick any lab and start playing. • Learning Journey — follow a short story one step at a time: Things that move, Light and sound, Earth and space. • Curiosity Lab — ask your own science question by typing or speaking and get a short, friendly answer. Tap "Draw it!" for a picture, save pictures to Photos, or have the answer read aloud. 102 LABS How the World Works (44 labs): Colour Mixer, Rainbow Spinner, Heavy or Light?, Drop Zone, Slide Race, Bouncy Balls and many more everyday science experiments Mechanics: Simple Pendulum, Projectile Motion, Elastic Collision, Spring Oscillator, Inclined Plane, Pulley System, Circular Motion and more Waves and Sound: Wave Interference, Doppler Effect, Standing Waves, Resonance Studio Light and Optics: Light Refraction, Light Reflection, Light Polarization, Rainbow Maker Electricity and Magnetism: Electric Field, Capacitor Charging, Circuit City, Magnet Maze, Electromagnetic Induction, Tesla Coil Heat and Matter: Gas Particles, Entropy & Disorder, Tiny Heat Engine, Crystal Builder, Phase Changer Quantum and Nuclear: Double Slit, Photoelectric Effect, Quantum Tunnel, Radioactive Decay, Nuclear Fission, Nuclear Fusion, Half-Life Detective Space and Relativity: Orbital Mechanics, Black Hole, Exoplanet Hunter, Relativity Rocket, Gravity Lens Earth and Energy: Tectonic Plates, Weather Balloon, Solar Grid, Wind Tunnel Fluids: Fluid Flow, Buoyancy, Vortex Lab HOW IT WORKS Touch the canvas to grab and interact with the simulation — there is no right or wrong way to explore. Adjust variables like gravity, mass, length and velocity with the built-in sliders and watch the results change instantly. For a hands-free experience, turn on the camera and control labs with your hand in the air. Hand tracking runs on your device — no images or video are stored or sent anywhere. CHALLENGES Every lab has a challenge that teaches the key idea behind it. Complete it to earn a star and track your progress across all 102 labs on the progress screen. REAL PHYSICS LAWS The simulations are built on real physics equations, and the app shows the governing laws so you can connect what you see to real formulas. ABOUT CURIOSITY LAB Answers and pictures are created by AI (Google's Gemini models) for learning and fun, and can sometimes be wrong. Every answer has a Report button, and questions are limited each day. Curiosity Lab asks for your permission before it shares a question with Google Gemini, and you can turn this off at any time in Privacy choices. WHO IS IT FOR Students, teachers and anyone curious about how the physics world works — from first questions to university physics. It makes an excellent companion to classroom learning, and no prior knowledge is needed. PRIVACY Play as a guest — no name or email needed. A grown-up can choose to sign in with Apple or Google to keep progress across devices, and can delete the account in the app at any time. You decide whether to share usage analytics. Camera processing happens entirely on your device. Privacy policy: https://physics-playground-24c5e.web.app/privacy Terms: https://physics-playground-24c5e.web.app/terms

About

Physics Playground App

Features
Read full description

Physics & Math, made playable. Touch a slider and watch the equation rewrite itself. Tilt a ramp and feel the friction. Aim a cannon, dial in a Lorentz factor, swing a double pendulum into chaos. Every idea has a hands-on playground that responds in real time. One app. The entire universe of physics and math - from counting blocks to category theory, from throwing a ball to the Theory of Everything. WHAT'S INSIDE • 55+ topics across Physics and Math, organized by tier - Classical, Modern, Frontier, plus Math Foundations, Intermediate, and Frontier. • A live difficulty slider that rewrites every explanation in real time for Child, Teen, Undergrad, or PhD. • Interactive playgrounds for every topic. Sliders, simulations, force diagrams, and SpriteKit physics that actually behave like physics. • Mini-games that earn you badges - predict chaos, balance crates, dial in gamma, win at quantum measurement, escape a black hole. • A concept map that shows how every idea connects to every other - drag, zoom, tap a node and dive in. • A constellation of earned badges that grows as you master the subjects. PHYSICS, FROM "WHAT IF" TO "WHY" Newton's Laws. Projectile motion. Energy & momentum. Orbits. Waves. Pendulum chaos. Thermodynamics. Fluids. Optics. Electromagnetism. Special Relativity. Spacetime. Photoelectric effect. Double-slit. Heisenberg uncertainty. Quantum tunneling. Stern-Gerlach spin. Atomic orbitals. The Standard Model. Statistical mechanics. Condensed matter. Lasers. Black holes. The Big Bang. String theory. Loop quantum gravity. Entanglement. Quantum computing. And the prize at the end - a Theory of Everything badge for mastering them all. MATH THAT BUILDS Counting → addition → subtraction → multiplication → division → fractions → decimals → percents and ratios → the number line. Then algebra, geometry, trigonometry, functions, exponents and logs, sequences, probability, and statistics. Then limits, derivatives, integrals, linear algebra, differential equations, complex analysis, topology, and category theory. HOW IT WORKS Pick a topic. Read a leveled explanation that matches your background. Scroll to the live equation strip and watch the variables update as you drag. Play with the simulator. Take on the challenge, earn the badge. Tap a related topic to follow the thread - every page links to its prerequisites and to the ideas it unlocks. BUILT FOR FOCUS • Beautiful, calm visuals on a deep-space backdrop. • Smooth 60fps animations, gentle haptics, and confetti for the wins. • No ads. No accounts. No tracking. • Designed for iPhone and iPad with full split-view support. • Offline-first - everything is on device. WHO IT'S FOR Curious kids who want to know what makes things go. Students who'd rather feel an equation than memorize it. Self-learners coming back to math years later. Grad students looking for the cleanest one-page mental model of a topic. Teachers and parents who want a single shareable demo for any concept that comes up. If you've ever wondered why airplanes turn the way they do, why time slows down at high speeds, why a pendulum can be predictable AND chaotic, or what a quantum bit actually is - this is the app. One scroll. One slider. One badge at a time. The universe, unlocked.

Screenshots

Physics Playgrounds4 screens
Physics Playground App4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Physics Playground App at weekly against Physics Playgrounds's every 3 months. Physics Playgrounds's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Physics Playgrounds ships an update every 3 months, Physics Playground App weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
Physics Playgrounds versus Physics Playground App: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhysics PlaygroundsPhysics Playground App
PriceFreeFree
Rating—3.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB29 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperKheniTechAJA Digital LLC

In-app purchases

None

Physics Playgrounds

No in-app purchases

None

Physics Playground App

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Physics Playgrounds free?
Physics Playgrounds is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Physics Playground App free?
Physics Playground App is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Physics Playgrounds or Physics Playground App have ads?
Neither Physics Playgrounds nor Physics Playground App shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Physics Playgrounds or Physics Playground App?
Physics Playgrounds ships an update every 3 months, and Physics Playground App weekly. Most recently, Physics Playgrounds was updated on October 12, 2026 and Physics Playground App on October 14, 2026.

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