Manim Physics: Animate Real-World Physics

Want to animate a swinging pendulum? A magnet’s field? Light bending through a lens? There’s a plugin for that.

Meet manim-physics, a plugin that adds real physics simulations to Manim.

What Is Manim Physics?

Manim physics is a free plugin created by 數心 (Matheart). We love their work.

So what does it do? It adds physics to your animations. Real physics. Not fake motion you draw by hand.

Think about it this way: normally, if you want a ball to fall, you have to tell Manim exactly where the ball should be at every moment. That’s a lot of work. With manim-physics, you just say “here’s a ball” and “here’s gravity.” The plugin figures out the rest. The ball falls like it would in real life.

This works for all kinds of things. Objects can bounce, spin, crash into each other, and react naturally. You set up the scene. Physics does the animation.

What Can It Do?

The plugin has four main areas. Each one opens up new possibilities for your animations.

Rigid Body Mechanics

This is the main feature. “Rigid body” just means solid objects. Things that don’t squish or bend. Like balls, boxes, and blocks.

You create a space with gravity. You add objects. Then you press play and watch what happens. Drop a ball. It falls. Throw a box. It tumbles. Stack blocks. They balance or collapse.

The plugin handles all the math. Gravity pulls things down. Objects bounce when they hit each other. Heavy things push light things around. You don’t calculate any of this. It just works.

Great for showing how things move, fall, and crash.

Pendulums

A pendulum is a weight hanging from a string that swings back and forth. You’ve seen them in old clocks.

Manim physics makes pendulums easy. Create one and it swings on its own. The timing and motion look real because they follow real physics.

You can also make multi-pendulums. That’s when you hang one pendulum from another. These move in wild, unpredictable ways. They look mesmerizing and are great for showing how small changes lead to big differences.

Electromagnetism

Electricity and magnetism are invisible. That makes them hard to explain. This module makes them visible.

You can place electric charges in your scene. Positive charges, negative charges. The plugin draws the field lines between them. These lines show how the charges push and pull on each other. You can finally see what’s happening.

Same with magnets. Place a wire with electric current flowing through it. The plugin shows the magnetic field around it. Now your students can see what they could only imagine before.

Optics

Optics is about light. How it travels, bends, and bounces.

This module lets you create lenses. A lens is a curved piece of glass that bends light. Magnifying glasses are lenses. So are your eyes.

Add a lens to your scene. Shoot light rays at it. Watch them bend as they pass through. The plugin calculates the angles for you. Your animation shows exactly how lenses focus light.

Perfect for explaining how glasses work, how cameras focus, or why pools look shallower than they are.

Waves

Waves are everywhere. Sound travels as waves. Light is a wave. Drop a stone in water and you see waves.

This module animates them. You get three types:

• Linear waves: These travel in a straight line. Think of a wave moving along a rope when you shake one end.
• Radial waves: These spread out in circles. Like ripples when you drop a pebble in a pond.
• Standing waves: These stay in place but vibrate. Like a guitar string when you pluck it.

Waves are hard to draw by hand. They need to move just right. This plugin handles the motion so you can focus on teaching.

Why Use It?

Physics is hard to explain with pictures. Pictures don’t move. Physics does.

When you show a ball falling, students see gravity. When you show waves spreading, they understand how sound travels. Motion makes concepts click.

And these aren’t fake animations. The plugin uses real physics equations. Your animations are accurate. They show how things actually behave in the real world.

The Hard Part

Here’s the catch. Manim physics is powerful, but it’s still code. Python code. You need to learn the syntax. You need to know which classes to use. You need to debug errors when things break.

For many people, that’s a wall. They want to make physics animations, not become programmers.

That’s Where Animo Comes In

Animo is an AI tool that writes Manim code for you. You describe what you want in plain English. Animo writes the Python.

It works as an extension in your code editor. VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Kiro, whatever you use. Just install the extension and start talking to it.

Want a pendulum? Type “create a pendulum that swings back and forth.” Want bouncing balls? Type “drop three balls and let them bounce.” Animo understands manim-physics. It knows the classes, the methods, the syntax. You don’t have to.

The code appears in your editor. You run it. You get your animation.

No Python experience needed. No memorizing documentation. Just describe and create.

Learn More

Check out the official documentation if you want to understand the technical details.

Or just head to Animo and start making physics animations today. Pendulums, collisions, electric fields, light rays, waves. All just a few words away.