Physics in Everyday Life: Simulating Collisions & Forces

Click For Summary
SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the challenges of simulating particle collisions and gravitational forces in computational physics. Key issues include the complexity of the three-body problem, which illustrates the difficulty of finding analytic solutions without simplifications. Participants highlight that simulating motion involves calculating future states from initial conditions, where small errors can accumulate due to time integration methods and machine precision limitations. The sensitivity of chaotic systems to these errors further complicates realistic simulations.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of the three-body problem in physics
  • Familiarity with numerical methods for time integration
  • Knowledge of machine precision and error propagation
  • Basic concepts of chaos theory in dynamical systems
NEXT STEPS
  • Research advanced numerical methods for simulating chaotic systems
  • Explore techniques for error analysis in computational physics
  • Study the implications of the three-body problem on multi-body simulations
  • Investigate tools for visualizing particle interactions in physics simulations
USEFUL FOR

Physicists, computer scientists, and engineers interested in computational simulations of physical systems, particularly those dealing with chaotic dynamics and particle interactions.

Jam Smith
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Hello everyone,
Last night I was reading about gravity and I come across one debate. I tried to search about it but got confused. I hope some one can help me.

The question is:

Why is it so hard to realistically simulate the collisions of particles, gravity all the forces that go on around us daily in a computer?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Jam Smith said:
Why is it so hard to realistically simulate the collisions of particles, gravity all the forces that go on around us daily in a computer?
Your question is completely unclear. EXACTLY what is it you want to see simulated? A single particle-pair interaction is one thing. Simulation of everything involved in, say, a single human being is quite another.
 
Jam Smith said:
Hello everyone,
Last night I was reading about gravity and I come across one debate. I tried to search about it but got confused. I hope some one can help me.

The question is:

Why is it so hard to realistically simulate the collisions of particles, gravity all the forces that go on around us daily in a computer?

Start with the 3-body problem and figure out why getting an analytic solution for the most general situation (i.e. without any kind of simplification or restriction) is impossible.

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/way-solve-three-body-problem/

Now imagine how this gets progressively more difficult with 4, 5, 6... Avogadro's number of particles.

Zz.
 
One way of simulating the motion is to start with an initial state and calculate the state a small time step in the future. Then repeat with the new state. Depending on how you do the time integration, you normally accumulate small errors which scale with some power of the size of the time step. In addition, you have a limited machine precision which introduces errors. These errors will cascade into your future states. The more chaotic your system is, the more sensitive you are to these errors.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Jam Smith
ZapperZ said:
Start with the 3-body problem and figure out why getting an analytic solution for the most general situation (i.e. without any kind of simplification or restriction) is impossible.

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/way-solve-three-body-problem/

Now imagine how this gets progressively more difficult with 4, 5, 6... Avogadro's number of particles.

Zz.

Hello Zz,
I am amazed after visiting this link. I found many books but this information is quite unique and also helps me to solve my doubts.
 
Khashishi said:
One way of simulating the motion is to start with an initial state and calculate the state a small time step in the future. Then repeat with the new state. Depending on how you do the time integration, you normally accumulate small errors which scale with some power of the size of the time step. In addition, you have a limited machine precision which introduces errors. These errors will cascade into your future states. The more chaotic your system is, the more sensitive you are to these errors.

How can we predict, these areas of chaotic starting conditions without an error approach?
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 25 ·
Replies
25
Views
4K
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
2K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
4K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
2K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
2K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
1K
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
2K