Minecraft is undeniably an extremely popular game and people enjoy playing it (I also). But how similar is the Minecraft world to our own. First off, let's talk gravity, to put it very simply it's the force that makes objects fall to the ground. Some of the blocks in Minecraft obey gravity like sand and gravel but the rest seem to just ignore it. For example, if you chop the bottom of tree in Minecraft the top of the tree will just stay there floating in air. That's a pretty fundamental difference right off the path.
But if you're up for it let's get a little more complicated, you can also carry around cobblestone with you. No big deal right, well if we had enough of them we would be carrying over 4,000 pounds on our back that's heavier than most cars. Now assuming that the density of cobblestone is around 2 or 3 grams per cubic centimeter, if we had enough of them assuming their volumes are pretty tiny the weight would add up very quickly. If we had one cubic meter – the size of a normal Minecraft block, it would weigh 2 or 3 tons.
In the Minecraft world you can find different minerals at various levels underground. Gold is normally found at a greater depth than diamond which is actually consistent with real life. Some of the deepest gold mines are more than 3 kilometers deep and while diamond is formed over 150 kilometers underground, kimberlite eruptions bring them closer to the Earth's surface.
The Minecraft world also has its own version of electricity called ‘redstone’. Using a redstone power source like a torch, circuits can be made to power different mechanisms. Similar to our own light bulbs, a redstone lamp will produce heat which melts any ice and snow around it. In an incandescent light bulb electricity passes through a tiny tungsten filament. The resistance of the filament turns most of the electrical energy into heat which is transferred to the colder ice nearby.
Speaking about hot things you can get pretty close to lava in the Minecraft world. In reality, if you were standing right next to a lava channel the radiant heat could potentially burn you. With that said, there's also types of lava that are insulated in others and if minecraft only has pahoehoe lava then you might be safe, just don't step in it.
Lastly, you can also play around with quantum physics in Minecraft. Google's quantum artificial intelligence lab created a mod called Qcraft which demonstrates some important quantum phenomena. For example, blocks may be both a pumpkin and a stone at the same time until someone looks at them and two quantum blocks can sync up even if they're very far apart in a process called quantum entanglement. So, who said video games can't be even a little educational. If you have a favorite video game leave it in the comment section below.
