You know the look.  You know the sound.  

Some things you hear and never forget them.  The ‘chung-chung’ sound of a Law & Order episode.  The sound of the Bionic Woman or the $6 Million Dollar Man running.  The sound the moving red eye of a Cylon from the original Battlestar Galactica. 

Chances are, you’ve seen a Newton’s Cradle before.  In science or physics class, the teacher would break out one of those bad boys to illustrate the principle of Conservation of Momentum, or maybe the difference between potential and kinetic energy. And, yeah, the Cradle might have taught you about science, but in truth, it was just fun to watch and play with. 

Now, through Logic Consulting, LLC, you can have your very own simulated Newton’s Cradle on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  

And it’s a very realistic simulation; object movement is fluid and natural and it looks (to a point) and sounds just like the real thing..  Using the tip of your finger, you can touch a ball, draw it back, let it go or even fling it (be careful, though, since you can easily get these tangled up) towards the other balls at rest.  The simulator will take it from there.  The balls (which can be set to chrome steel or wood) clack against each other in that characteristic way you’ve come to know and love.  Wood makes a different sound than steel and you can clearly hear the difference on this app.  And as added bonuses, you can switch on the accelerometer to mimic the effect of gravity, tilt your device to affect the arc and swing of the balls, lock a tilt in place and even add or subtract the number of balls hanging from the cradle. 

The only drawback of this app, and I’m not entirely sure that it’s a drawback of the app so much as the actual toy itself itself, is that I don’t know that it can hold your attention for long periods of time.  After a few minutes, I got bored.  I also worry that the $1.99 price tag might scare away otherwise interested buyers even though this is clearly a quality app. 

And- for what it’s worth to you- the original inventor of the Newton’s Cradle toy has approved this particular Newton’s Cradle app.  I also have to be honest: I wasn’t expecting to be as easily entertained as I was playing around with this thing.  It makes for a nice, fun diversion. 

iTunes Link – Newton’s Balls Kinetic Physics Newton’s Cradle Simulator 

Version 1.0 

Tested on an iPod Touch 3.1.3