Physics of WiiSports Tennis
Equations of motion for an object
moving in two dimensions
(Autoplay and pause at 0:21) What happens next?
How does the software decide?
Realistic games
In order for games to appear realistic the programmers have to
use what's called a physics engine, a piece of software that
uses physics to find out what happens next.
We all know that if you hit a tennis ball it doesn't keep going in
a straight line, but what does happen?
Think and Talk
Task
We can all describe roughly what will happen to the ball but the
game needs to respond very precisely to small changes in how
fast it is hit or in what direction it is hit.
Your task today is to find the equations of motion for an object
moving in two dimensions. To keep it simple we will not include
concepts like air resistance or spin.
Do we include horizontal projection or go straight to v at an
angle?
We will try to use these equations in a very simple simulation to
see if they match real life.