What would happen if we could turn off gravity? Or if the sun were to suddenly disappear? Or, let’s say we lived in a universe with two suns instead of one. How would our orbit be different? There’s only one way to find out: experiment! Over the past week, Rabbi Shaya First’s physics classes have been experimenting with two universe building simulators, Universe Sandbox on STEAM and the PHET gravity and orbits simulator from the University of Colorado, to answer these and many other fascinating questions. They’ve toyed with the velocity of the sun and the Earth, and added planets and satellites to the solar system to discover the effects of changing any small detail in our universe’s current setup. They’ve analyzed the results of their findings in light of the laws of Newton and Kepler that they studied in class and they’ve come to appreciate the incredible balance of the universe, as created by the ultimate creator Himself. Next up in their studies: special relativity!