I I made an N-body simulation program

AI Thread Summary
A project focused on solving the 3-body gravity problem evolved into a comprehensive N-body simulator that incorporates both gravitational and electromagnetic interactions, utilizing special relativistic mechanics. The program allows for unique simulations, such as modeling a hydrogen atom alongside a microscopic black hole, demonstrating advanced numerical integration techniques. Users are encouraged to explore the simulation's capabilities, with feedback welcomed for further improvement. The discussion also highlights the complexity of N-body simulations and shares resources for additional learning. Overall, the project showcases innovative programming and physics integration.
Random Physics Fan
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My little project - 3body simulator started as a programming exercise, which I attempted to make a program that solves the famous 3-body gravity problem using numerical integration.
Later I gained interest in the underlying physics and expanded the program to solve N-body problems involving both electromagnetic and gravitational interactions. I also replaced Newtonian mechanics with special relativistic mechanics (as for the model of gravity, general relativity is too challenging for me, so I used an approximation under the weak field limit which was Lorentz-invariant).
You can do all sorts of weird simulation such as the following:

Object 1 (e-) and object 2 (p+) form a hydrogen atom under the classical Bohr's model, with n = 10; object 3 is a hypothetical microscopic blackhole with the mass of the Moon, placed 10 mm under the hydrogen atom.

Object 1:
mass: 9.11e-31 / charge: -1.60e-19
position: 5.29e-9,0,0 / velocity: 0,218500,0

Object 2:
mass: 1.67e-27 / charge: 1.60e-19
position: 0,0,0 / velocity: 0,0,0

Object 3:
mass: 7.35e22 / charge: 0
position: 0,0,-0.01 / velocity: 0,0,0

Duration of simulation: 1e-12 / number of steps: 1000
-> Use advanced option and turn on scientific notation (to show the position of the electron)

(Note: the Schwarzschild radius of the blackhole is about 0.11mm (<<10mm), so general relativistic effects like gravitational time dilation are insignificant.)

Please try out my little program and you comments are appreciated!
 
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Likes davyzhu, Bandersnatch, vanhees71 and 4 others
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Hi,

Congratulation. I did an N-body simulation (yours is N=3) some time ago. It is really not easy nor it is dead, in my eyes. Perhaps you are interested in the following material: N-Body

Have fun!
 
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Likes aaroman and vanhees71
Great work @Random Physics Fan and @Omega0

While I can't comment on the accuracy of your simulations, from a programming standpoint, I'm sure others can benefit from what you folks did.

As an aside, there are also some good simulations at the Open Source Physics website done in Java using the OSP library of simulation routines.

www.compadre.org/osp

And with that said, its a good time to close this thread.

Jedi
 
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