If LLMs had come out when I was younger, I would have been able to understand things this easily. There are some incorrect implementations, but they're incredibly helpful for grasping the concepts.
Combustion engine web-based simulator
71–80 of 87 posts
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#72If you're looking for a carefully crafted/written work to explain internal combustion engines, look no further than this one https://ciechanow.ski/internal-combustion-engine/ (the Mechanical Watch article from the same author was featured on HN a while ago).
I wish he was still making posts.
It's been a year and a half since the last one, compared to 1 or 2 posts per year. Here's hoping he's taking some extra time to make something amazing
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see no declaration that this is a machine generated site, but the aesthetic is a dead giveaway. The language on the “how it works” page is unmistakably LLM output. As a total novice in engines this site had the potential to educate me, but did the author vet the data at all? If the author doesn’t bother telling me they checked any output on this, what assurance do I have anything is accurate on the site at all? If…
I'm a mechanical engineer who has written similar tools for work and hobbies. Producing pretty pictures does not mean that the model is physically accurate. Unfortunately, such tools seem be evaluated much more on flashiness and not on more reliable and objective criteria like physical accuracy based on verification and validation test suites. I'm seeing that in the comments here. I don't think LLMs make what I do ir…
> I don't think LLMs make what I do irrelevant, but I have thought that I'm going to have to improve how flashy my simulations look to compete better with non-experts who use LLMs.
This scares me more than "LLMs replace humans". You're going to have to take away time from doing the actual work to replace it with doing bullshit work to impress an ever more detached "decision" layer.
I don't even think the posted page qualifies as a "simulation". It's at best an animation with a calculator/model side-by-side.
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#74@AngeTheGreat on youtube is worth mentioning here, I think. He has a whole series on building out engine simulators of various types, and even published a Steam game for steam engine simulation. His work is notable because he leans heavily into generating sound directly from the simulations.
He published it as open-source for like 5 seconds before taking the repository down in order to charge for it on Steam! I'm a little weirded out by that pattern of open-sourcing it and then just changing his mind.
I have a podcast interview with Ange where we talk a bit about the first time this blew up on HN
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bi6bLSCnjcY&si=r4atSKfsBEQ...
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#75Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once again, I have issue only with his taking it back after already open-sourcing it. It felt disingenuous. That's all. I would have no issue with simply never open-sourcing, but he open-sourced it and then took it back. He could've never open-sourced it in the first place. He could've archived it and kept the rest of the development private. He could've done anything other than what he did. It's one thing to take ba…
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I was upset when I heard it'd been taken DOWN after it already went up. Not based on literally any expectation of any future support or literally anything. Literally at that point it had already been published and then reportedly unpublished. It's back up now and learning of that resolved my frustration, but man you are making a lot of incorrect assumptions about me, even after I clarified myself multiple times on this exact point.
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is it useful? I'm no expert in combustion engines, so I'd hesitate to rely on a slop graphic like this to learn about them as I doubt the creator has any idea about them either. It's like a friend - he was like "Look at this awesome set of categorized interactive animations from claude to learn geometry!". And like 60% of the animations were technically just wrong. Very pretty though, and the effects were cute...…
why are you so invested in telling ppl in what they are allowed to find useful/entertaining? especially after admitting you dont nkow anything about combustion engines?
Where did I say what people are allowed to find entertaining?
It would be insane to tell someone what they should find entertaining, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
As for useful, I'm genuinely trying to understand HOW you find something useful that may or may not have zero accuracy to the thing in which it's portending to showcase?
When I don't know about something - I would find someone who's really knowledgeable (or a resource that's vetted), and learn from that obviously. I don't want to learn something completely unverified and made up? That makes no logical sense.
Just like my friend's slop graphics. I imagine learning geometry from that and fundamentally locking in incorrect knowledge when there are many thousands of resources that would teach me correctly - this makes no sense right? Would you prefer to learn from the pretty graphics that are teaching you nothing?
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#78Calling this AI slop would be generous. If we made a list of the things wrong with it we would be here all day. Nothing has an effect on redline RPM, you can create compression and turbo combos that would instantly grenade an engine, the preset “super car” has 200hp? The only thing it illustrates is the authors lack of understanding.
I fed the technical data of my motorcycle into the model and it told me right away that this build would destroy a real engine because the piston speed would be too great.
The real thing has been running for 56,000 miles, so it can't be that bad. *g
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#79Calling this AI slop would be generous. If we made a list of the things wrong with it we would be here all day. Nothing has an effect on redline RPM, you can create compression and turbo combos that would instantly grenade an engine, the preset “super car” has 200hp? The only thing it illustrates is the authors lack of understanding.
"Supercar" has 670hp 500lb-ft @ 5297rpm which seems reasonable. After configuring the tool with my car's specs, it was fairly close on the dyno; though, I'm very far from an expert. Imho, pretty cool, nonetheless.
Re: Combustion engine web-based simulator
#80I like It, no matter what