Gravitation
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## WHAT IS IT?
This model is part of the Gravitational Model Suite. This is the most basic version of the model, in which particles exert gravitational force upon each other.
## HOW IT WORKS
Every particle has mass, position, and velocity. At every time step, every particle pulls on every other particle with a gravitational force proportional to its mass and inversely proportional to the distance between the two particles. Each particle sums up these forces to calculate its total acceleration at every tick, and updates its velocity accordingly. These rules are simply an implementation of well known Newtonian laws of physics - but some interesting behaviors can result.
## HOW TO USE IT
The NUMBER-OF-OBJECTS slider determines how many particles are spawned. The STARTING-BOX slider defines the coordinates they can be spawned inside - a smaller value spawns them closer to the center. MAX-STARTING-VELOCITY allows them to have a randomly determined starting velocity, and MAX-STARTING-MASS defines a maximum mass for the particles to be randomly assigned. SETUP sets up the model, and GO starts or pauses it. SETUP-TWO-ORBITS, SETUP-HELIOCENTRIC-ORBIT, and SETUP-4 all load up interesting starting configurations. PARTICLE-SCALE increases the size of the particles, for easier viewing when the model is very zoomed out.
## THINGS TO NOTICE
Notice that along an orbit, kinetic energy and potential energy are in opposition. When a particle reaches the highest point in its orbit (i.e., has the most potential energy), it is moving the slowest. When the particle reaches its lowest point, it is moving fastest. Conservation of energy states that a particle's total energy (kinetic + potential) must be constant unless it gains or loses energy by interaction with something else. Therefore, as it is moving through its orbit, it converts kinetic energy to potential energy and vice versa.
This also means that if (for example) a particle gains kinetic energy at the lowest point of its orbit, its highest point will correspondingly have more potential energy, which requires it to be farther away. In simpler terms, speeding up widens the opposite end of the orbit, and slowing down brings the opposite end closer. These are all emergent properties that result naturally from Newtonian laws of gravitation.
## EXTENDING THE MODEL
There are plenty of ways that this could be made quicker. Since every particle interacts with every other particle, this model is O(N^2), which is pretty bad. One simplification would be to only consider particles within a certain distance, assuming once you get too far away the gravitational pull is negligible. Alternatively, groups of particles could be considered together in calculations to speed things up. However, I decided to leave it as is for now, favoring accuracy over simplifications for the sake of speed.
## NETLOGO FEATURES
One workaround that was used was "zooming" in and out to compensate for the fact that Netlogo doesn't support resizing the world. So when a particle tries to go outside the bounds of the world, rather than making the world bigger, I just scaled down all the positions. This is why every turtle has a separate x-pos, y-pos and z-pos defined in addition to the default xcor, ycor and zcor; the new -pos variables are not scaled down and are used in all physics calculations, while the default cor variables are modified by the global zoom-factor variable and are used for displaying turtles. As a result, the world can effectively become bigger and smaller as needed.
## RELATED MODELS
This model is part of a suite of models, along with the Gravity Wells model and the Orbital Playground model.
## CREDITS AND REFERENCES
http://modelingcommons.org/browse/one_model/4623
Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo [computer software]. Evanston, IL: Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo .
Comments and Questions
turtles-own [ x-velocity y-velocity z-velocity ; 3d velocity of the particle x-pos y-pos z-pos ; physical position of the particle mass ; represents physical mass. More mass means a greater gravitational pull ] globals [ zoom-factor ; used to relate x, y, z-pos variables to actual xcor, ycor, zcor ] to setup clear-all set-default-shape turtles "circle" set zoom-factor 1 create-turtles number-of-objects [ setxyz (random-float starting-box - random-float starting-box) (random-float starting-box - random-float starting-box) (random-float starting-box - random-float starting-box) set x-velocity ((random-float max-starting-velocity) - (random-float max-starting-velocity)) set y-velocity ((random-float max-starting-velocity) - (random-float max-starting-velocity)) set z-velocity ((random-float max-starting-velocity) - (random-float max-starting-velocity)) set mass random-float max-starting-mass set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] reset-ticks end ;; Sets up a symmetric system of two particles orbiting each other to setup-two-orbits clear-all set-default-shape turtles "circle" set zoom-factor 1 create-turtles 1 [ setxyz 5 0 0 set x-velocity .03 set y-velocity .1 set z-velocity 0 set mass 3 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] create-turtles 1 [ setxyz -5 0 0 set x-velocity 0 set y-velocity -.1 set z-velocity 0 set mass 3 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] reset-ticks end ; Sets up a system with a "sun" and a smaller particle orbiting it to setup-heliocentric-orbit clear-all set-default-shape turtles "circle" set zoom-factor 1 create-turtles 1 [ setxyz 0 0 0 set x-velocity 0 set y-velocity 0 set z-velocity 0 set mass 1000 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] create-turtles 1 [ setxyz -20 0 0 set x-velocity 0 set y-velocity 2 set z-velocity 0 set mass 1 set size mass set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] reset-ticks end ; Sets up a system of two pairs of particles - each particle orbits the other in its pair, and the pairs orbit each other to setup-4 clear-all set-default-shape turtles "circle" set zoom-factor 1 create-turtles 1 [ setxyz 23 5 0 set x-velocity .07 set y-velocity -.05 set z-velocity 0 set mass 2 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] create-turtles 1 [ setxyz 23 -5 0 set x-velocity -.07 set y-velocity -.05 set z-velocity 0 set mass 2 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] create-turtles 1 [ setxyz -23 5 0 set x-velocity .07 set y-velocity .05 set z-velocity 0 set mass 2 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] create-turtles 1 [ setxyz -23 -5 0 set x-velocity -.07 set y-velocity .05 set z-velocity 0 set mass 2 set size mass ^ (1 / 3) set x-pos xcor set y-pos ycor set z-pos zcor ] reset-ticks end to go compute-acceleration-changes check-boundaries move check-slide tick end ; Keeps the world centered on the center of mass of all particles to check-slide let CoM center-of-mass turtles slide-view (item 0 CoM) (item 1 CoM) (item 2 CoM) end ; Calculates the center of mass of a turtleset to-report center-of-mass [turtleset] ; R = 1/M sigma (mi * ri) let M 0 let totalx 0 let totaly 0 let totalz 0 ask turtleset [ let mi [mass] of self set M M + mi set totalx totalx + [x-pos] of self * mi set totaly totaly + [y-pos] of self * mi set totalz totalz + [z-pos] of self * mi ] report (list (totalx / M) (totaly / M) (totalz / M)) end ; Checks turtle positions in the world, zooms out if any turtle is too close to the edge to check-boundaries let flag false ask turtles [ if abs (x-pos + x-velocity) > max-pxcor * zoom-factor * .8 or abs (y-pos + y-velocity) > max-pycor * zoom-factor * .8 or abs (z-pos + z-velocity) > max-pzcor * zoom-factor * .8 [ set flag true ] ] if flag [ print "zooming out" set-zoom 1.02 ] set flag false ask turtles [ if abs (x-pos + x-velocity) > max-pxcor * zoom-factor * .5 or abs (y-pos + y-velocity) > max-pycor * zoom-factor * .5 or abs (z-pos + z-velocity) > max-pzcor * zoom-factor * .5 [ set flag true ] ] if (not flag) [ ;print "zooming in" ;set-zoom .98 ] end to tick-once compute-acceleration-changes check-boundaries move check-slide tick end ; Asks turtles to gravitationally affect each other to compute-acceleration-changes ask turtles [ let turtle1 self ask other turtles [ gravitationally-affect turtle1 self ] ] end ; Update turtle positions based on velocity to move ask turtles [ set x-pos x-pos + x-velocity set y-pos y-pos + y-velocity set z-pos z-pos + z-velocity if not hidden? [ set xcor x-pos / zoom-factor set ycor y-pos / zoom-factor set zcor z-pos / zoom-factor ] ] end ; Calculates gravitational pull of one turtle upon another to gravitationally-affect [ affected affecting ] ; g = m1 * m2 / r^2 ; r = sqrt(xdist^2 + ydist^2) -> r^2 = xdist^2 + ydist^2 let xdist [x-pos] of affecting - [x-pos] of affected ;print xdist let ydist [y-pos] of affecting - [y-pos] of affected ;print ydist let zdist [z-pos] of affecting - [z-pos] of affected let total-acc 0 let xyangle 90 let zangle 90 let xydist (xdist ^ 2 + ydist ^ 2) ^ .5 if abs(xdist) + abs(ydist) + abs(zdist) > 0 [ set total-acc [mass] of affecting / max (list (xdist ^ 2 + ydist ^ 2 + zdist ^ 2) ((([size] of affected + [size] of affecting) / 2) ^ 2)) let angle-heading atan xdist ydist let z-angle-heading atan xydist zdist set xyangle (90 - angle-heading) mod 360 set zangle (90 - z-angle-heading) mod 360 ] if total-acc > 50 [ set total-acc 50 ] set total-acc total-acc / 20 let xyacc total-acc * (cos zangle) ask affected [ set x-velocity (x-velocity + xyacc * (cos xyangle)) set y-velocity (y-velocity + xyacc * (sin xyangle)) set z-velocity (z-velocity + total-acc * (sin zangle)) ] end ; Shifts positions of all turtles, used to stay centered around center of mass to slide-view [deltax deltay deltaz] ask turtles [ set x-pos x-pos - deltax set y-pos y-pos - deltay set z-pos z-pos - deltaz ] ;print "slide" end ; Zooms scale of the world in or out to set-zoom [new-zoom] set zoom-factor zoom-factor * new-zoom print zoom-factor ask turtles [set size mass ^ (1 / 3) / zoom-factor * particle-scale] end
There are 5 versions of this model.
Attached files
File | Type | Description | Last updated | |
---|---|---|---|---|
MichaelKushnir_May16.docx | word | May 16 progress report | over 8 years ago, by Michael Kushnir | Download |
MichaelKushnir_May23.docx | word | May 23 progress report | over 8 years ago, by Michael Kushnir | Download |
MichaelKushnir_May9.docx | word | May 9 progress report | over 8 years ago, by Michael Kushnir | Download |