HTML5 Canvas, 2nd Edition

Simple Gravity, Elasticity, and Friction

Adding simulated gravity, elasticity, and friction to your objects adds a sense of realism that otherwise would not exist in 2D. These properties are major forces in nature that people feel and understand at nearly every moment of their lives. This means that people who play games expect objects to act in a particular way when these properties are applied. Our job is to simulate those effects as closely as possible, while minimizing the processing power necessary to create them. While there are some very complicated physics equations we could use to create these effects, we will use simplified versions that work well with the limited resources available to HTML5 Canvas in a web browser.