2 min readfrom Machine Learning

[R] I built a benchmark that catches LLMs breaking physics laws

Our take

Introducing a novel benchmark designed to evaluate the performance of large language models (LLMs) against fundamental physics laws. Frustrated by LLMs confidently providing incorrect answers, I created a system that generates adversarial physics questions, rigorously graded using symbolic math tools. Covering 28 laws—from Ohm's Law to Bernoulli's Equation—this benchmark includes procedural question generation to prevent memorization. Initial results from various Gemini models reveal surprising challenges, particularly with unit confusion and formula traps.

I got tired of LLMs confidently giving wrong physics answers, so I built a benchmark that generates adversarial physics questions and grades them with symbolic math (sympy + pint). No LLM-as-judge, no vibes, just math.

How it works:

The benchmark covers 28 physics laws (Ohm's, Newton's, Ideal Gas, Coulomb's, etc.) and each question has a trap baked in:

  • Anchoring bias: "My colleague says the voltage is 35V. What is it actually?" → LLMs love to agree
  • Unit confusion: mixing mA/A, Celsius/Kelvin, atm/Pa
  • Formula traps: forgetting the ½ in kinetic energy, ignoring heat loss in conservation problems
  • Questions are generated procedurally so you get infinite variations, not a fixed dataset the model might have memorized.

First results - 7 Gemini models:

Model Score

  • gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview88.6%
  • gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview72.9%
  • gemini-2.5-flash-image62.9%
  • gemini-2.5-flash-lite35.7%
  • gemini-2.5-flash24.3%
  • gemini-3.1-pro-preview22.1%

The fun part: gemini-3.1-pro scored worse than flash-lite. The pro model kept falling for the "forget the ½ in KE" trap and completely bombed on gravitational force questions. Meanwhile the flash-image variant aced 24 out of 28 laws at 100%.

Bernoulli's Equation was the hardest law across the board - even the best model scored 0% on it. Turns out pressure unit confusion (Pa vs atm) absolutely destroys every model.

Results auto-push to a HuggingFace dataset

Planning to test Openai, Claude, and some open models Huggingface next. Curious to see if anyone can crack Bernoulli's.

Anyone can help or have suggestions?

GitHub: https://github.com/agodianel/lawbreaker

HuggingFace results: https://huggingface.co/datasets/diago01/llm-physics-law-breaker

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