Video Game Analysis:

Gravity

 

In Team Fortress 2, like most other games, there is gravity. We can clearly see projectiles falling and characters staying on the ground. Also, in real-life physics, objects wall at the same rate and therefore will hit the ground at the same time when dropped at the same time. This means that no matter what character it is, heavy or light, they should be falling the same rate and land at the same time. 

 

We can also determine the acceleration in tracker and see if it is similar to the gravity here on earth. 

To do so we would use the equation:   a = (vf-vi)

                                                                                t

However looking back the data we had collected, I realized that the data was not as accurate. I did some research and found that the acceleration of gravity in source engine games (TF2 being one of them) was 800 HU/s/s which is about 15.24 m/s/s. 

 

HU: Hammer units. Measurement used by Source Engine games. Used to judge speed of objects and players in game. 1 HU = 1/16 ft., the minimum distance the Source Engine cane measure

 

So then, I decide to use another kinematics equation that did not involve time which was:

  a = (vf^2 - vi^2)

                 2d

I looked at the results and it seemed a lot more accurate with only a 1% deviation rather than a 20% deviation. Therefore, I can say that the timing on tracker when I recorded must have cause the inaccurate data. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we know in the video game world the acceleration is 15.24 m/s/s, we can use this as the new acceleration of gravity rather than just assuming gravity is 9.8 m/s/s.  We can also say that objects would feel a greater force of gravity in the video game than in real life which is only 9.8 m/s/s The acceleration is not that different, as if we were to just look at the gameplay, we would barely see any difference. 

 

This means that the gravity in the video game world is 1.56 stronger than the one on earth. Therefore we can say that the video game world is 1.56 times bigger than earth!

 

15.24 m/s/s    = 1.56

   9.8 m/s/s

 

From the videos, we can see that each class is affect by the same gravity. Each class falls and hits the ground at the same time even though they are different masses. This is because for a big object with a big force of gravity, it has a bigger inertia for it to accelerate. Therefore the object's inertia is directly proportional to the force of gravity which is why objects fall at the same rate.

 

All classes demonstrate the newton's law of motion. They show how gravity affects them as they accelerate downwards. It also demonstrates opposite and equal forces as players push off the ground in order to jump up. In fact, everything in Team Fortress 2 follows newton's law of motion. Except for the scout and his weapons. The scout has the ability to create momentum out of nowhere, which enables it to double jump. This breaks newton's first law as momentum was created with no appropriate source of push. Weapons like the atomizer and soda popper for the scout enables to do multiple jumps in the air consecutively which also break's newton's laws.