MATHS WITH MATT • A-LEVEL PHYSICS
Free A-Level Physics Simulations
A-Level Physics simulations: see the physics, change the conditions.
Explore free interactive A-Level Physics simulations for AQA, Edexcel, OCR A and OCR B. Choose a topic, adjust the controls and see how the physics changes.
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Moments Lab
Balance multiple masses, solve a ladder problem and measure a plank’s centre of mass. Teacher and Student views with optional hints.
Einstein’s Light Clock
Explain time dilation and length contraction with a bouncing photon, a labelled triangle and a spaceship laser.
Worldline Lab: Spacetime Diagrams
Watch motion build a worldline. Explore light’s fixed gradient, drag events through a light cone and change observers with a smooth Lorentz transformation.
Spacetime Explorer: Relativity & Black Holes
Launch test masses, explore a deep black-hole mesh, mark the Schwarzschild radius and send in photons. Compare yellow Newtonian orbits with red Einstein trajectories.
Particle Lab: Quarks & Feynman Diagrams
Build hadrons, explore strong and weak interactions, and construct Feynman diagrams with labelled arrows and exchange lines. Predict each step, use conservation hints and follow the white highlights through your completed diagram.
Binding Energy Lab
Connect mass defect with nuclear energy. Explore liquid-drop fusion and fission, build the SEMF term by term, and investigate magic numbers.
Kinetic Theory & Thermal Physics Lab
Nine investigations: molecular pressure, gas laws, Brownian motion, heating curves, thermodynamics and radiation, with live teacher graphs.
Electric Potential Explorer
Follow equipotentials from top-down circles to a 3D potential landscape and 1/r graph. See why equal voltage steps have unequal spacing and connect field strength to potential gradient.
Photoelectric Effect Simulation
Explore photons, threshold frequency, electron energies and stopping potential. Compare classical predictions, discharge an electroscope and measure Planck’s constant.
Inverse Square Law: Light, Fields & Flux
Compare spreading light beams, radial electric and gravitational fields, and conserved flux. Measure intensity, plot graphs and test the inverse square law.
Momentum & Collisions Simulation
Explore crash tests, bumper cars, a ballistic pendulum and 2D collisions. Compare force, impulse, momentum and energy, with Teacher and Student views.
Orbit Simulator: Rocket Launch & Satellite Orbits
Explore Newton’s cannon, launch a two-stage rocket and fly coached satellite missions. Change orbits, investigate gravity and return through the atmosphere.
Pendulum, Damping & Resonance
Explore SHM, force vectors and KE/GPE exchange. Compare exponential damping and push a swing on time or out of time to investigate resonance.
Diffraction Grating Lab
Compare laser, two-colour and white-light diffraction. Explore intensity patterns and orders on a curved screen in a 3D apparatus view.
Optical Fibre Lab
Explore total internal reflection, curved fibres, bend losses and modal and material pulse dispersion.
Waves & Oscillations 12 simulations
Inverse Square Law: Light, Fields & Flux
Compare spreading light beams, radial electric and gravitational fields, and conserved flux. Measure intensity, plot graphs and test the inverse square law.
Pendulum, Damping & Resonance
Explore SHM, force vectors and KE/GPE exchange. Compare exponential damping and push a swing on time or out of time to investigate resonance.
Diffraction Grating Lab
Compare laser, two-colour and white-light diffraction. Explore intensity patterns and orders on a curved screen in a 3D apparatus view.
Optical Fibre Lab
Explore total internal reflection, curved fibres, bend losses and modal and material pulse dispersion.
Wave Lab: Waves in Two Dimensions
Explore interference, diffraction, reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, Doppler shifts and Mach cones. Adjust wavelength and phase, move sources, draw barriers and compare probe traces.
Standing Waves & Reflection
See how an incident wave and its reflection superpose to form nodes and antinodes. Compare fixed and free boundaries and change the wave conditions yourself.
Standing Waves: Strings & Air Columns
Explore harmonics in strings, open pipes and closed pipes. Link longitudinal particle motion to displacement and pressure nodes, antinodes, compressions and rarefactions.
Wave Motion Simulation
Compare transverse, longitudinal and water waves. Follow particle motion, compressions and rarefactions, and see why water waves are mixed transverse–longitudinal waves.
Wave Superposition
Watch two wavelets overlap and add vectorially. Explore super peaks, super troughs, cancellation, constructive interference and destructive interference.
Simple Harmonic Motion, Circular Motion & Transverse Waves
Watch one model morph between its SHM, circular, wave and 3D views. Change the spread, number, separation and amplitude to see that they are different ways of viewing the same motion.
Double-Slit Diffraction & Interference
Watch coherent wavefronts leave two slits, compare crest and trough arrival at a chosen point, and connect the moving picture to path difference, phase and fringe spacing.
Oscillations & Phase Difference
Compare phase-shifted oscillations, drag two points on a progressive wave and connect their separation directly to phase difference in degrees, radians and phasor form.
Atomic & Nuclear Physics 4 simulations
Particle Lab: Quarks & Feynman Diagrams
Build hadrons, explore strong and weak interactions, and construct Feynman diagrams with labelled arrows and exchange lines. Predict each step, use conservation hints and follow the white highlights through your completed diagram.
Binding Energy Lab
Connect mass defect with nuclear energy. Explore liquid-drop fusion and fission, build the SEMF term by term, and investigate magic numbers.
Photoelectric Effect Simulation
Explore photons, threshold frequency, electron energies and stopping potential. Compare classical predictions, discharge an electroscope and measure Planck’s constant.
Hydrogen Atom: Bohr Model & Photon Transitions
Explore quantised hydrogen energy levels as de Broglie standing waves. Trigger excitation and de-excitation, watch Gaussian photon wave packets being absorbed or emitted, and connect each transition to its exact energy, wavelength and spectral line.
Relativity 2 simulations
Einstein’s Light Clock
Explain time dilation and length contraction with a bouncing photon, a labelled triangle and a spaceship laser.
Worldline Lab: Spacetime Diagrams
Watch motion build a worldline. Explore light’s fixed gradient, drag events through a light cone and change observers with a smooth Lorentz transformation.
Spacetime Explorer: Relativity & Black Holes
Launch test masses, explore a deep black-hole mesh, mark the Schwarzschild radius and send in photons. Compare yellow Newtonian orbits with red Einstein trajectories.
Mechanics 5 simulations
Moments Lab
Balance multiple masses, solve a ladder problem and measure a plank’s centre of mass. Teacher and Student views with optional hints.
Momentum & Collisions Simulation
Explore crash tests, bumper cars, a ballistic pendulum and 2D collisions. Compare force, impulse, momentum and energy, with Teacher and Student views.
Orbit Simulator: Rocket Launch & Satellite Orbits
Explore Newton’s cannon, launch a two-stage rocket and fly coached satellite missions. Change orbits, investigate gravity and return through the atmosphere.
Golf Projectile Motion
Play a golf shot while changing launch speed, angle, mass, air resistance and backspin. Follow the SUVAT equations continuously, compare trajectories and explore a right-handed double-pendulum swing.
Newtonian Asteroids
Play an Asteroids-style space game with deliberately strict Newtonian mechanics. Explore inertia, thrust, torque, projectile recoil, changing mass, momentum and collisions, then switch on Physics View to see the vectors live.
Electricity & Magnetism 8 simulations
Electric Potential Explorer
Follow equipotentials from top-down circles to a 3D potential landscape and 1/r graph. See why equal voltage steps have unequal spacing and connect field strength to potential gradient.
Inverse Square Law: Light, Fields & Flux
Compare spreading light beams, radial electric and gravitational fields, and conserved flux. Measure intensity, plot graphs and test the inverse square law.
Voltage, Current, Resistance, Power & Charge
Watch bread-carrying vans travel from Waitrose to Matt’s house. Adjust all five linked sliders, add potholes and connect vans per second and loaves per van to the electrical quantities. Matt eats the bread, not the van: resistors transfer energy without consuming charge.
Series and Parallel Circuits
Follow coulombs of charge as delivery vans collecting joules of energy from the cell. Compare series and parallel rules, test Kirchhoff’s laws and solve Ohm’s law live.
Electric Field Lab
Explore point charges, dipoles, charged lines and parallel plates. Compare uniform fields and edge effects, draw equipotentials and use a draggable field probe to see how source fields add.
Charged Particle & Velocity Selector
Launch a charged particle through electric and magnetic fields. Balance qE against qvB and prove the velocity-selector relationship v = E/B.
DC Circuit Construction
Build and test textbook circuits by dragging wires and components onto the grid. Explore current, potential difference, capacitance and real-time I–V and Q–t characteristics.
Electromagnetic Induction
Explore Faraday’s law, Lenz’s law, rotating coils, motional emf and generator behaviour. Track flux linkage, emf, current, forces and magnetic fields in 2D and 3D.
Thermal Physics 1 simulation
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How to use these A-Level Physics simulations
Predict, change one variable, then explain
Start with a question: will the current increase, will the fringes move further apart, or which particle completes the interaction? Make a prediction before changing a control. Compare the animation with the graph, equation or numerical reading, then explain the result in your own words.
Choose a model for the idea you are studying
Use wave superposition to add displacements, the DC circuit builder to investigate a circuit, and electromagnetic induction to connect changing flux linkage with emf. The topic buttons scroll to the relevant models while leaving the collection visible.
For independent revision and classroom teaching
Students can test an idea here before practising A-Level Physics exam questions by topic. Teachers can pause a model for a class prediction, compare two cases or set a short investigation. The simulations support learning and practical preparation; they do not replace experimental evidence or your course specification.
Each simulation is designed around the ideas and equations students meet in AQA, Edexcel and OCR A-Level Physics. They are free to use and work directly in your browser.