NetLogo / NetLogo/models

Bad physics in Particle System Fountain

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Dominant language
NetLogo
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Forks
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No merged PRs in 30d

Description

The treatment of gravity and forces is very bad. Yes, the info tab says "Gravity is unrealistic in this system, in that its acceleration changes depending on the particle’s mass. This is an important characteristic of particles systems: We can create motions that do not strictly follow real-world physical rules."

Why present a model in which the acceleration due gravity is proportional to the mass? If one wants students to explore alternative physics then at least add a slider or switch that controls these non-Newtonian features. True that with constant initial y velocity the fountain looks terrible but why not have different initial velocities?

And the variable names of the code seem to mix up force with acceleration. E.g. "set velocity-x velocity-x + force-accumulator-x * step-size". Given that the particles do have different masses force and acceleration are different. Why not rename force-accumulator-x to acceleration-x?

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue does not name a file or test; start by locating the Particle System Fountain model in the NetLogo Models Library and inspect its info tab and force-accumulator-x usage. Before changing it, clarify which physics behavior and controls are desired with maintainers. Done requires an agreed treatment of gravity and initial velocity, plus terminology that distinguishes force from acceleration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
computer-graphics
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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