"Getting Physical" with Second Life building and scripting

Dear Folks,
Do you know that you can "get physical" in Second Life with prims? There are a few settings you can use in Second Life where prims can exhibit real-world object behavior and gravity.
The next time you create an object in Second Life, click the "object" tab and then check the box called "physical." When you choose the "physical" attribute, it means that it is subject to the laws of gravity. After you create it, it will roll, bounce, and also fall through any other prim (if you create it over another object).
I decided to create an exhibit showing the mathematics of motion using an inclined ramp and rolling spheres. Galileo reportedly experimented with dropping objects from the Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that objects fall at the same speed, whatever their mass. He also used an inclined ramp, to slow the rate of descent of objects so that he could more accurately record his findings. He wanted to study gravity and how it affected the acceleration of objects. Through many experiments he discovered that as acceleration continues to make the rolling object move faster it continuous doubles its speed as it continues to roll.
From his many experiments he concluded that acceleration acts in a uniform fashion on a rolling/falling object and that the amount of distance covered is in relation to time squared. In other words, as an object is rolling it is continuously doubling in acceleration. One of the formulas he developed was
d ∝ t2 OR the total distance covered is proportional to the time squared.
I have constructed a simulation of Galileo's experiments in the Online@UCF area in Second Life. In one exhibit you can make spheres fall from the Tower of Pisa and there are also ramps so you could observe the mass of falling objects and acceleration. I also created a reflector telescope of the type that Galileo had used.
Here is the SLURL to visit the site:
Online@UCF (formerly UCF Course Development and Web Services):
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Arts%20and%20Letters/214/186/22/

I am still updating this exhibit, but you are welcome to visit the area and try it out. Fortunately, there is another useful attribute to assign to an object in Second Life, it is called "temporary." When an object is temporary, it is created and then disappears within about sixty seconds. This is fortunate, otherwise the area would soon become littered with rolling spheres !

To Megaprim in Second Life ?

To Megaprim or not to megaprim, that is the question ...

The topic today is about megaprims. Everything in Second Life you see is made from prims (the wooden plywood boxes) that are changed in shape, size, and texture. The prim is 1 m2 in size, which is about twice the size of a normal avatar head.

When you are building in Second Life, the largest size that you can stretch a prim (the wooden box you create) is 10 m2. If you view the attached image a 10 m2 size is the red box in the middle of the image. The first structure on the left is an oval megaprim that is 30 x 30x 40 m2. The tiny stick to the right of the 10 m2 box with the arrow pointing to it is my avatar. A structure that is the size of 10 m2 (the red box) is not very large. What do you do when you are building and have a huge amount of area to build? If you are building, let's say a sidewalk that is going to reach from one side of your land to the other, this could involve 20, 30, 50 or more of these 10 m2 prims. Why would this be important?

Most people don't know this but you are allowed only a certain amount of prims on your land. When you exceed that limit, you have to stop building or delete something in order to free up more building capacity. A region or sim is 65.536 m2 in size. If you are visiting an island, have your avatar fly around the perimeter of the island, you can get an idea of the size.
Here are the usual sizes of land and how many prims you can use:

65,536 m2 = a region/sim = 15,000 prims allowed
32768 m2 = 1/2 region/sim = 7,500 prims allowed
16384 m2 = 1/4 region/sim = 3750 prims allowed
8192 m2 = 1/8 region/sim = 1875 prims allowed
4096 m2 = 1/16 region/sim = 937 prims allowed

When you rent or buy land you normally are not obtaining a full region and must be concerned with prim limits and maximizing your use of prims.

One of the methods that builders use to save prims is to use something called megaprims. They are prims that have been created in such a way that they are much larger than the 10 m2 limit and only use the equivalent of 1 prim when used in a building application.

You must be careful when using megaprims because you don't want to accidentally rez (create) a huge cylinder on your land that covers your entire area and also that of your closest neighbor.

The easiest way to obtain megaprims to use is to go to https://www.xstreetsl.com/ and type the word "megaprim" in the search field. You can buy some preboxed megaprims for very affordable prices.