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Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

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Re: Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

#41

Post by adastra22 »

lutusp wrote: post #22
kapitanjakc wrote: post #14

No physics expert but isn't this unpredictable (based on what I saw in series) ? Amd this does seem predictable, I saw this for almost a minute

> No physics expert but isn't this unpredictable (based on what I saw in series) ? A three-body orbital problem is an example of a chaotic system, meaning a system extraordinarily sensitive to initial conditions. So no, not unpredictable in the classical sense, because you can always get the same result for the same initial conditions, but it's a system very sensitive to initial settings. > Amd this does seem predict…

There are stable solutions. See: Earth’s Moon (or any other planetary moon in the solar system).

Re: Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

#42

Post by 2b3a51 »

adastra22 wrote: post #39
Mikhail_Edoshin wrote: post #24

I recently thought that if life supposedly happened by chance then it should be same for the three-body problem: naturally occurred solutions floating here and there somewhere.

There’s a big one in the sky right now - the Earth-Moon-Sun system.

The relative scales might be a bit hard to put in the simulation. Roughly 400 to 1 for Earth-Sun to Earth-Moon. It would be fun to set that up and view from Earth and view from Sun though.

Re: Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

#44

Post by gorgoiler »

I didn’t realize something until I used this simulation: with three bodies you can eject one body in one direction and the barycentre of the remaining two in another. This means that compared to the original frame of reference you have an orbiting pair that moves.

It’s one of those things that seems so obvious and yet actually seeing it is a really important step in understanding.

Re: Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

#47

Post by thrance »

There is also this fun website: https://labs.sense-studios.com/threebody/index.html

Simulating a four-body problem from the point of view of a telluric planet being juggled around by three stars. It's supposed to emulate the evolution of trisolarans from the "Three Body Problem" novel by Liu Cixin.

Re: Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

#49

Post by grumbelbart2 »

I triggered some bug by pausing the simulation, setting the mass of one of the objects to 29.1, then resuming. The lighter objects bounced into the massive objects a few times, then all three objects were suddenly ejected with a very high velocity.

Re: Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator

#50

Post by ralferoo »

One thing I'd never really considered before is how frequently bodies get ejected at high speed from the simulation, especially as the number of initial bodies is increased. Suddenly made me realise that the "big bang" which previously seemed a bit of a random and magical theory (obvious question is why would the universe be expanding from a single point when gravity would be immense) now seems a lot more plausible without needing any "magic" to justify it.
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