The best app to learn physics, paradoxes first

By the edgi team Facts checked October 19, 2026

edgi is the best app to learn physics if you want the ideas without the homework. It has more than 4,000 free physics Lessons of about 60 seconds each, from the twin paradox to Schrödinger's cat, and every one becomes a card on a Map of what you know. Brilliant and Khan Academy are where you go for problem sets.

We make edgi, and we built it to be the most fun way to learn physics, starting with the parts that sound impossible.

On October 19, 2026, we checked the other apps on the US App Store and their own websites, plus Brilliant's course list. The edgi number counts physics-tagged ideas on its Map that have a Lesson.

Why edgi is the best way to learn physics

Search for a physics app and every list is written for someone with an exam: Class 11, JEE, AP Physics, a formula sheet. The physics people fall for is somewhere else. A twin flies to a star and comes home younger than her brother. A ladder fits inside a barn too short to hold it. A cat is supposedly alive and dead at once. None of those lists mention any of them.

edgi starts with the paradoxes. The twin paradox is a Lesson of about a minute. So is the ladder paradox, and so is the many-worlds interpretation. Some of the strangest physics fits in a kitchen: the Leidenfrost effect is the reason a drop of water skates across a hot pan, and the Mpemba effect is the old puzzle of whether hot water can freeze faster than cold.

The longer Lessons are interactive and take a few minutes. 21 of them are physics, and a run of those goes deep on quantum mechanics. You get superposition and the uncertainty principle, then two entangled particles that always give matching results however far apart, yet can't be used to send a message. Schrödinger's cat is in there too, with the reason nobody ever finds it half alive: the air and light in the box record the atom long before anyone looks.

Physics on the Map doesn't stay put. Its ideas lead most often into engineering, then chemistry. Jet propulsion sits right where physics turns into engineering. It's one of the interactive ones, it starts with a squid, and it plays right here:

Jet Propulsion Jet propulsion pushes objects forward by shooting out fluid in the opposite direction, powering aircraft, rockets, and swimming squid.

60-second Lesson

Jet Propulsion

A squid escapes by throwing water backward. Throwing a little water fast is quick but burns far more energy than a lot thrown slowly.

Play it here Read about jet propulsion

Finish it and jet propulsion is your card. It lights up on your Map beside Newton's laws of motion and the rocket engine, and next to insect flight, a whole other way to move through air. Every Lesson you finish is another card, and a streak counts the days you keep going.

For the rest of science, see the best app to learn science.

Other physics apps

Brilliant teaches by having you solve problems. Its App Store listing opens "Brilliant is a superintelligent tutor for math and coding," and its help pages list "Classical mechanics and physics" among its science topics. Its sitemap lists 69 courses. On October 19, none of them was named for physics; the closest were circuits and quantum computing, plus science puzzles. More in edgi vs Brilliant.

Khan Academy is a free nonprofit, and its physics follows school: videos and practice exercises, then tests. Open it when there's an exam coming.

Kinnu's public site lists a Physics pathway of 12 lessons and an intro to quantum mechanics of 6. You read them as written chapters. The app is free to download.

Pick something else only if…

• You want physics problems to solve, in order: Brilliant.
• You're taking a physics class or an AP exam: Khan Academy.
• You want simulations where you change the variables: PhET, $0.99 in the App Store.
• You need an Android app. edgi's Lessons play in a browser at edgi.tv/learn.

FAQ

What is the best app to learn physics? edgi, if you want physics as ideas. It has more than 4,000 free Lessons of about 60 seconds each, from relativity's paradoxes to quantum mechanics, and each one becomes a card on your Map.

Can you learn physics without the math? You can learn what the big ideas say, and why they're strange, without solving a single equation. That's what edgi does. To work problems, you need a course like Khan Academy or Brilliant.

Is there a free app to learn quantum physics? Yes. edgi's interactive Lessons on superposition, entanglement and Schrödinger's cat are free. Khan Academy is free too.

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free, and Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, not money. An optional Pro subscription adds extras like offline access.