What is The Physics Aviary?

The Physics Aviary is a free educational website that provides cross-platform, run-anywhere physics programs and simulations to help students master core physics concepts. Created by Frank McCulley and operating since 2013, the site is aimed at physics students and teachers worldwide. It is useful if you want interactive practice tools or homework problems that run in a browser without ads, cookies, trackers, or AI. The site states that all resources are made available free of charge.

What the site offers

The Physics Aviary focuses on programs that work across platforms and can run almost anywhere, which makes them practical for classrooms, labs, and independent study. According to the site, the resources are designed to help physics students around the world master the big ideas in physics.

Key characteristics:

• Cross-platform and run-anywhere — the programs are built to work on different devices and operating systems.
• Free of charge — the site states all resources are available free to anyone who finds them useful.
• No ads, cookies, trackers, or AI — the programs are presented without these elements.
• Ongoing updates — new programs and improvements are added over time.

Who runs it

The Physics Aviary is created and maintained by Frank McCulley. The site describes the programs as "created by humans for humans." Contact is available by email at [email protected], and the site notes a separate email address (listed at the bottom of the page) specifically for Physics Aviary questions.

Recent and ongoing projects

The site's latest news section describes several current efforts:

• Updating all problems — homework and classwork problems are being revised. Students enter their names before starting so they don't forget at the end, and certificates are color-coded (green for good, red for wrong).
• Translations — programs are being made translation-ready so they can be converted into other languages. Teachers who want programs in their students' native language can reach out for help with the process.
• Worksheets — worksheets are being added to resource pages for some homework problems, to guide students through tougher problems and let them work on paper more easily.

Ukrainian resources

The site also hosts Ukrainian-language physics lab resources for students and teachers in higher education. These were created by Myroslava Chernova for her students at the National Technical University of Oil and Gas in Ukraine, with permission from the simulation developers. The site invites visitors to share these resources with Ukrainian speakers who might benefit.

When to use it

The Physics Aviary is a reasonable choice if you:

• Want free, browser-based physics simulations and practice problems.
• Prefer resources without ads, cookies, or trackers.
• Need materials that work across different devices or platforms.
• Are a teacher looking for homework problems, worksheets, or translatable programs.

If you can't find what you need among the site's resources, the homepage points to other sites listed below its main resources.