In a paper entitled "Quantum Mechanics: See It Now," delivered to the American Association of Physics teachers, Styer demonstrates several visualizing models he generated to help students learn some basic principles of quantum physics. These models fundamentally rely upon simple data input, which in turn generates various graphical displays in the form of graphs. For example, Dyer's program QMTime allows users to manipulate pre-set values that correspond with a particle's movement over time. Depending upon how users manipulate the data, a corresponding graphic wave will animate, illustrating how energy travels in a wave over a period of time before slowly dissipating and disappearing altogether.
Dyer's visualization game models are just several in a large pool of computer model games that allow users to view and alter graphic displays of various quantum mechanic principles. Perhaps the most popular of these game types are so-called rag doll games, in which a graphically rendered form, most often a human body, is shown falling or collapsing. Users manipulate elements of the form's fall such as distance, speed, time and various foreign objects with which the form collides. The resulting display mimics the way that form might fall in real life, demonstrating to users the ways in which elements such as distance, speed, time and foreign objects impact the way particles move and interact.
Many computer games utilize the principles of rag-doll animation to present a passably realistic physical action. For example, many console-based fighting games such as "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat" have deployed rag-doll animation techniques when animating a playable or non-playable character in the act of being struck or falling to the mat. Similarly, the popular phone-based game "Angry Birds" also uses rag-doll animation to show how two-dimensional shapes respond to a foreign object -- in this case, an angry bird -- when that object is hurled at the shapes from a set distance.
Based on the position that quantum mechanics "can be approached only through abstract mathematics," Dyer also points to many fact-based guessing games pertaining to quantum physics. This include trivia-based games in which players read questions about physical principles or physics history and choose a correct response. Other games include guessing at the possible outcome in a visualizing or computer-based game when users manipulate certain features of a computer model. For example, predicting how an energy wave will travel and dissipate when the initial thrust of that wave is manipulated, as well as the time which the wave will travel.