Fortnite as a Physics Laboratory
Fortnite as a Physics Laboratory
Introduction
Virtual worlds make awesome laboratories. They allow us to bend the laws of reality, become part of life-sized experiments, and recreate famous experiments. Over the past year, I've been experimenting with Fortnite as a tool for physics education. With the support of a generous MegaGrant from EpicGames, my students and I have created several custom Fortnite experiments and associated teaching materials. The culmination of this work is the Fortnite Physics Playground where students extract physics data directly from the game engine as they design and carry out their own original experiments in Fortnite.
The Fortnite Physics Playground
This educational Fortnite island tracks and displays your player's physics data in real-time, eliminating the need for video analysis. Key features include:
Real-Time Motion Data: Monitor your player's real-time position, velocity, acceleration and more, displayed directly from the game engine.
In-Game Data Visualization: Capture and view your physics data on interactive tables and charts within the game.
Data Export: Export your physics data for further analysis outside the game.
Visit the Fortnite Physics Playground during your next Fortnite session!
Fortnite Virtual Laboratory Curriculum
We created a series of educational Fortnite islands - virtual laboratories that demonstrate STEM principles, recreate classic experiments, and illustrate the surprising math and physics of video games. These activities were built with Fortnite Creative and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Each activity includes a custom Fortnite Island, an introductory video, and an instruction sheet. Each activity is designed to be completed in a single class period with optional extension opportunities for further analysis or student projects.
Lab 1: Measuring Speed
In this lab activity, we use Fortnite to precisely measure the speed of all sorts of crazy vehicles - from semi trucks and motorcycles to UFOs and shopping carts.
Lab 2: Free-Fall Acceleration
In this lab activity, we determine the acceleration due to gravity in Fortnite both with and without gravity modifiers. The results are very surprising.
Lab 3: Tower of Pisa
In this lab activity, we use “Lockie’s Leaning Lighthouse” to recreate Galileo’s classic Tower of Pisa experiment and determine whether Fortnite follows the same principles of gravity as the natural world.
Lab 4: Terminal Velocity
In this lab activity, we’ll be skydiving in Fortnite to see if the game designers include realistic air resistance. In particular, we’ll explore the relationship between a skydiver’s angle of attack and their terminal velocity.
Lab 5: Projectile Motion
In this lab activity, we investigate the accuracy of Fortnite's physics by experimenting with launching projectiles. Specifically, we climb into virtual cannons and launching our players across the sky to see how far they fly.