Physics of WiiSports Golf

Forces on slopes

(Autoplay and pause 0:53–1:01) What happens next?How does the software decide?

Realistic games

In order for games to appear realistic the programmers have to use what's called a physics engine, a piece of software that uses physics to find out what happens next. In putting the player has to take account of the slope of the green when playing their shot. What equation governs the effect of the slope? 

Think and Talk

Task

We can all describe roughly what will happen to the ball on the slope but the game needs to respond very precisely to small changes in how fast it is hit or in what direction it is hit. Your task today is to find the equations which govern the effect of the slope. To keep it simple we will not include concepts like friction or spin and will assume that the ball is struck at right angles to the slope. We will then try to use these equations in a very simple simulation. In the first level we will assume the speed of the ball after the collision and calculate the speed of the skittle. In the second level you need to work out the speed of both.