Gravitation

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Default-person Michael Kushnir (Author)

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Parent of 2 models: Gravity Wells and Orbital Playground
Model group MAM-2016 | Visible to everyone | Changeable by the author
Model was written in NetLogo 3D 6.0-M5 • Viewed 307 times • Downloaded 26 times • Run 0 times
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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 .

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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.

Uploaded by When Description Download
Michael Kushnir almost 8 years ago Final modifications Download this version
Michael Kushnir almost 8 years ago Final improvements Download this version
Michael Kushnir almost 8 years ago Bug fixes, other small updates Download this version
Michael Kushnir almost 8 years ago Added support for modifying the view Download this version
Michael Kushnir almost 8 years ago Initial upload Download this version

Attached files

File Type Description Last updated
MichaelKushnir_May16.docx word May 16 progress report almost 8 years ago, by Michael Kushnir Download
MichaelKushnir_May23.docx word May 23 progress report almost 8 years ago, by Michael Kushnir Download
MichaelKushnir_May9.docx word May 9 progress report almost 8 years ago, by Michael Kushnir Download

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