Simulation Physics:

• The Havok physics engine, commonly used in video games, is free for academic purposes.
• Pretty sure we can use this but it might be overkill.
• There is another popular one that is open source called bullet
• Cannot find any inventory of what functions are in the libraries.  I don’t know if you can get impulse forces from this.

Integrated Circuits:

• Reviewed the soldering techniques video from youtube.  The maker of the video has a website: http://store.curiousinventor.com/
• Lots of good guides and projects there
• Found a pcb board simulator with guides for how to use it on his site.
• The AD5248 seem to be a good digital potentiometer.  It is 2-bit addressable, has 10k ohm resistance, 2 circuits per package,and 256 steps.