A Slower Speed of Light facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 
Poster
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| Developer(s) | MIT Game Lab |
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| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | Windows, OS X, Linux |
| Release date(s) | 2012 |
| Genre(s) | First-person |
A Slower Speed of Light is a free video game. It was made by the MIT Game Lab. This game helps you understand the amazing ideas of special relativity. It does this by slowly making the speed of light slower and slower. By the end, light moves as slow as you walk! The game uses the Unity engine. It also uses a special free tool called OpenRelativity.
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How to Play A Slower Speed of Light
In A Slower Speed of Light, you play as a young child. This child wants to "become one with light." But light is usually super fast! To help, you collect special magic orbs. Each orb you pick up makes the speed of light a little bit slower.
At first, it's easy to walk around and grab these orbs. But as you collect more, the strange effects of special relativity start to appear. This makes the game more challenging and fun!
Cool Effects of Special Relativity
As light gets slower in the game, you will see some really cool and weird things happen. These are all real effects from special relativity:
- Doppler effect: Colors change! Light might look more red or blue. Even light you can't normally see, like ultraviolet or infrared, might become visible.
- Searchlight effect: Things look brighter in the direction you are moving. It's like you have a built-in searchlight!
- Time dilation: Time can seem to pass differently for you than for the world around you. It's a bit like time is stretching or squishing.
- Lorentz transformation: The world around you might look warped or bent. This happens when you move very close to the speed of light.
- Runtime effect: You might see objects as they were in the past. This is because light takes time to travel from them to your eyes.
All these effects combine as you play. They make the game harder and more exciting.
About OpenRelativity
OpenRelativity is a special set of tools. It was made by MIT Game Lab while they were creating A Slower Speed of Light. This toolkit works with the Unity game engine. It helps the game accurately show what a 3D world would look like if light moved slower.
OpenRelativity is free for anyone to use. It's available on a website called GitHub.
Learning with A Slower Speed of Light
The main reason A Slower Speed of Light was made was to teach. The creators hoped it would be a fun way to explain special relativity. This game is a great interactive tool. It helps anyone interested in physics learn about these complex ideas in a simple way.
See also
In Spanish: A Slower Speed of Light para niños
