One of the hardest topics in school next to computer science is physics. Time and again I see students struggle with the topics, and I have to admit I didn’t find it easy in high school myself. So I started studying physics again using Khan Academy, and gained much insight into the basics. I have admired Sal Khan since he started his site, and as a school teacher I also think I should help him, and my students, wherever possible.
I started drawing a diagram of how all things in physics connected to each other, and while doing that, I realized there should be software to do this better. After a short search I found the wonderful D3 toolkit, based on web standards, just as I like it. D3 can create awesome diagrams, graphs, infographics, you name it.
So now I have for your pleasure and learning aid a physics based overview of common physics quantities. Click the image to see the actual animated model.
Some tips on how to use it:
- Click the diagram to automatically redraw it
- Drag nodes to change the layout
- Mouseover a node to see related info
Use in physics assignments
The colors in the diagram denote related quantities:
- blue – essential axiomatic units Mass, Length and Time. Learn more about these in this lecture by Walter Lewin.
- green – related to movement
- orange – related to energy
- red – related to a single unit
To use this diagram in your physics assignment, look at the known variables. Find those in the diagram. Now see if you can combine those to make more variables: follow the arrows. If you can start from two known values you can usually calculate a third. You continue doing this until you have found the desired outcome.
The Universe Divided 
Fine piece of work! Would you mind fixing relationships and formula of acceleration to reflect what the (correct) unit indicates: m/(s*s) measures velocity by time not distance?
Thank you, that is an interesting idea. I already thought of it, the space to put more text is quite cramped so I think it should be a hover popup. When I have some time I will revisit the code.
I love it! This is so great. Nice work!