How the Physical World Works
Bridge the gap between textbook equations and how physical systems actually behave. Master the core principles of conservation, fields, thermodynamics, and modern physics to predict real-world phenomena with confidence.
Like Duolingo, but for How the Physical World Works. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
22 levels across 4 sections, about 44 minutes end to end, roughly 9 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Predicting Motion and Dynamics; Oscillations, Waves, and Fields; Heat, Work, and Entropy; and Modern Physics and Quantum Limits. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How the Physical World Works
- Conservative forces like gravity make work independent of the path taken.
- Intermediate accelerations cancel out when comparing total mechanical energy.
- Only the vertical displacement between endpoints determines gravitational potential change.
- Net work done on an object directly equals its change in kinetic energy.
- Working against a conservative force stores energy in a potential field.
- Non-conservative work like friction permanently removes energy from mechanical forms.
- Internal forces like crumpling cannot change an isolated system's net momentum.
- Kinetic energy can drop to zero while total vector momentum remains strictly constant.
- Momentum conservation requires zero external net force, not energy conservation.
- Total linear momentum is identical before and after impact.
- Objects stick together and move with a single common final velocity.
- Maximum possible kinetic energy converts into thermal energy and acoustic waves.
- Internal explosive forces cancel out in pairs via Newton's third law.
- External gravity alone dictates the acceleration of the system's center of mass.
- The collective center of mass continues along the original parabolic arc.
- Inertial frames move at constant velocity with zero acceleration relative to distant stars.
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How the Physical World Works the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
A cart rolls over complex bumps on a frictionless track. Why can you ignore its speed changes across every dip when finding its final speed?
Get it right to open this lesson and 21 more in the app.
Where How the Physical World Works takes you
- 1
Predicting Motion and Dynamics
- Analyzing Motion with Conservation Laws
- Frames of Reference and Apparent Forces
- 2
Oscillations, Waves, and Fields
- Oscillations and Wave Dynamics
- Electromagnetism as Field Interactions
- 3
Heat, Work, and Entropy
- Thermodynamics and Statistical Microstates
- 4
Modern Physics and Quantum Limits
- Special Relativity and Spacetime Geometry
- Quantum Mechanics and Probabilistic Reality
4 sections · 7 units · 22 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How the Physical World Works is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How the Physical World Works today.
Download Tomo, search How the Physical World Works, and play your first lesson in under a minute.