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I am in the process of conceptualizing an iOS or computer game (a modification of Tetris) that would be suitable for motivated high school students and university undergraduates. It is meant to be an educational game that will convey concepts. Any ideas of what quantum phenomena I could represent in the game that won't be too conceptually challenging or daunting (because the game needs to be entertaining as well as educational).

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Sorry to paint it so negative but I can not imagine anything else more distracting than focus on falling blocks while thinking about quantum physics. A lot of fellow colleagues use real time games to tune out from thinking about physics. If you want to teach physics think about simulation sandboxes, e.g. Crayon Physics. – Alexander Mar 4 '12 at 14:41
your question might fit also on this brand new SE proposal: undergrauates. – Daniele B Jan 24 at 16:27

closed as not constructive by David Zaslavsky♦ Mar 4 '12 at 3:14

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1 Answer

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Have random tetris blocks jump from here to there.

Instead of showing what block will come next, get a random distribution of two or three blocks each turn. Now, plot the wavefunction on a 4x4 grid. You may want to animate a 'collapse' which gets sent to the main screen.

Even better: make the falling tetris piece a wavefunction in extreme-hard mode. The wavefunction is collapsed when its boudaries touch (alternatively, get near to) the bottom tetris blocks. This will be pretty hard, but fun. Teaches you to deal with probabilities as well as how observations collapse a wavefunction.

Have an uncertainity in the tetris block position and velocity.

Have random blocks tunnel through one another (i wish I had this in normal tetris--would make it easier--but less fun I guess)

Have blocks randomly disappear/appear.

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There's some potential for a game that is strategically interesting in its own right with these features, but I really think most of these changes are more likely to misleading than properly educational. – David Zaslavsky♦ Mar 4 '12 at 3:19
@DavidZaslavsky Hmm.. yeah; that's true.. Though the wavefunction thing wouldn't be too misleading, it would help them visualise something that is confusing and doesn't exist in the strict sense. – Manishearth♦ Mar 4 '12 at 3:28
Well, if not misleading, then horribly confusing ;-) But anyway it's not important here. This would be the sort of thing to bring up in the chat room if you want to discuss it. – David Zaslavsky♦ Mar 4 '12 at 3:34
@DavidZaslavsky naah, its OK... Though I guess it would be blasphemous for anything QM related to not be confusing ;P – Manishearth♦ Mar 4 '12 at 3:54

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