Hello there everyone,

I'm here because I'm using Portal 2 in my research for my masters degree in science education. Basically I'm doing a study to figure out if Portal 2 (and by extension "virtual reality") helps students learn Newton's Laws and makes them more excited to learn about physics.

I've designed an after-school program where the kids will come in and learn about Newtons Laws, play Portal 2, learn how to use the Puzzle Maker, and design their own puzzles. They will have three main assignments - building a puzzle that demonstrates each of Newton's Three Laws at some point in the puzzle.

I'd like to reach out to the Portal 2 mapping community for help brainstorming ways that this can be accomplished to get a better idea on what potential ways the students will be able to complete the assignments.

In particular, I'm having trouble thinking of how they could demonstrate the second law - F=ma (the acceleration experienced by an object in response to a force is proportional to it's mass). There doesn't seem to be any way I can vary mass, or add friction to surfaces, etc...in order to provide opposing forces or produce accelerations that are different (every cube is going to respond the same way to a given force, for example)

Any ideas you may have on how any of Newton's Laws can be demonstrated with Portal 2 and with the Puzzle Maker, I would be incredibly grateful if you could post them here! Here are the laws for reference:

1. Law of Inertia - Objects tend to stay in motion (or at rest) unless an external force is applied.
2. F=ma - The acceleration experienced by an object in response to a force is proportional to the objects mass.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Thanks in advance!

You can contact Valve about their educational version if you have not already. The educational version has a contraption cube where students can change the mass, and physic properties of the cube.

I don't know if you've got your heart set on Portal 2 or not, but a better game for this sort of thing might be Contraption Maker (spiritual successor to The Incredible Machine, by the same guys). It's a partially physics-based puzzle game that allows people to make their own levels, and the original Incredible Machine games were probably some of the most from my childhood.

Not to say that you can't get Portal 2 to work, but Contraption Maker/The Incredible Machine might be a better fit for what you're trying to accomplish. Good luck!

Like reep said, Valve has an educational edition in which they implemented almost the precise things you're talking about, if I recall from promotional imagery.

Short of that, you could contact the folks behind the bee mod and see about making or commissioning some custom puzzlemaker blocks with variable mass/weight/friction etc. Basically, the puzzlemaker just builds levels out of VMF instances, so if you stick some custom ones in there and rig up the appropriate config files, it should just work - you'll want to talk to them, however, to figure out what exactly needs to happen, and maybe get some help with it.

Good luck with your research, and if you find any interesting results, do post them back here!