Comparison

Playground Physics vs 3DPhyS

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

Head to head
About

Playground Physics

Record videos of motion, trace paths, and analyze physics concepts like forces and energy. This tool helps educators bring Newton's Laws to life with interactive graphs and slow-motion playback. Ideal for middle and high school science.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

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/

About

3DPhyS

Explore fundamental physics concepts through interactive simulations. Adjust parameters like initial velocity and bounce coefficient to understand phenomena like free fall, projectile motion, and circular motion. This app supports learning in multiple languages.

Highlights
  • Interactive physics simulations
  • Adjustable experiment parameters
  • Multiple physics experiment modules
  • Multilingual interface
  • Free to download and use
Features
Read full description

3DPhyS offers a fun way to learn physics using Physics Simulator! Localized the home scene into Japanese, English, Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Russian, Indonesian, Arabic, and Korean! Some parts are still in Japanese, but you can still simulate the game even if you do not understand Japanese! The following courses of experiments are available Free Fall Vertical projection Horizontal projection Oblique projection Monkey Hunting Bounce coefficient Object sliding on a slope Buoyancy force Frictional force Momentum conservation law for two-object collision (bounce coefficient) Momentum conservation law for splitting Circular motion Circular motion under gravity Single swing of pendulum Universal gravitation In each experiment, you can freely change parameters such as initial velocity and bounce coefficient! Please use this app to improve your performance! If you have any comments or typos, please feel free to contact us.

Screenshots

3DPhyS3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: 3DPhyS at 80% against Playground Physics's 40%. 3DPhyS also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 months) and device support (3 vs 1). Playground Physics's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price and in-app purchases 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

Playground Physics ships an update every 5 months, 3DPhyS fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and August 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Playground Physics versus 3DPhyS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlayground Physics3DPhyS
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews40.0% of reviews80.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB176 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNew York Hall of ScienceSota Takasugi

Customer experience

Playground Physics

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive40.0%
Neutral6.7%
Negative53.3%

3DPhyS

Written reviews5 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

None

Playground Physics

No in-app purchases

None

3DPhyS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Playground Physics free?
Playground Physics is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is 3DPhyS free?
3DPhyS is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Playground Physics or 3DPhyS have ads?
3DPhyS shows ads; Playground Physics does not.
Which is updated more often, Playground Physics or 3DPhyS?
Playground Physics ships an update every 5 months, and 3DPhyS fortnightly. Most recently, Playground Physics was updated on September 13, 2026 and 3DPhyS on August 6, 2026.

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