Electromagnetic Simulator

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AlternateGravity
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Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by AlternateGravity »

I was just thinking that, just as this site has a game in which we can simulate planetary orbits using different equations for gravity, it would be cool if this site had a game in which we could simulate atoms and molecules using different equations for electricity and magnetism. I mean I wonder how chemistry would work if the equations that govern electricity and electromagnetism were different.
Gravitons would be my favorite particle as their existence could prove extra dimensions.
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testtubegames
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Re: Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by testtubegames »

Wow, that would be amazing.

I've often thought about the easy change it would be to make the Gravity Simulator work for Electricity. With a bit of extension, I could even see it working for all of Electromagnetism.

But modeling atoms, molecules and chemistry? That sounds like a tough job! To have a simulator that knew that H2O had a bonding angle of 104.5 degrees... and then when you changed the strength of the electric force slightly it could recalculate the new bond angle/length/vibrations... whew! And then it did that for ever conceivable (and unconceivable) arrangement of atoms!! I get the sense that a Nobel prize might be in the works for such an impressive simulator ;)

But I may be going a bit overboard.

Here are a few tiers that I could envision:
1) Electricity! Yay - unlike the objects in the gravity simulator, we now have attraction and repulsion (... without resorting to negative masses or weird force laws, of course.) Could be nice and instructive, and fun to play with.
2) Electromagnetism. Kind of like the electric shocktopus, but just a sandbox for particles. And if you wiggled a charged particle, it would give off light. Sounds pretty cool, if a bit confusing to look at (picture all the field lines you'd need to understand how a light wave formed!)
3) 'Fake' Chemistry - In theory, with just electricity, we might be able to get some fake chemistry going on. Kind of like In Bond Breaker, say, where different particles attract or repel depending on how many 'electrons' are around their nucleus. This would probably not reflect the real world all that well, though... since for one thing many molecules are distinctly not 2D (think CH4), and I bet I'd have to leave out enough that some really strange stuff could happen. But it could certainly be a fun sandbox.
4) Real Chemistry - accurate virtual models... based on full quantum mechanical properties. I'll need a team of scientists and a decade.
5) Life - after millions of compute cycles, the molecules self-replicate, and grow into cellular and eventually multi-cellular life. I am their ruler.

Hm, I got a bit carried away.

Anyway, was one of those tiers what you had in mind? Or were you picturing something different?
NealCruco
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Re: Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by NealCruco »

testtubegames wrote:Wow, that would be amazing.

I've often thought about the easy change it would be to make the Gravity Simulator work for Electricity. With a bit of extension, I could even see it working for all of Electromagnetism.

But modeling atoms, molecules and chemistry? That sounds like a tough job! To have a simulator that knew that H2O had a bonding angle of 104.5 degrees... and then when you changed the strength of the electric force slightly it could recalculate the new bond angle/length/vibrations... whew! And then it did that for ever conceivable (and unconceivable) arrangement of atoms!! I get the sense that a Nobel prize might be in the works for such an impressive simulator ;)

But I may be going a bit overboard.

Here are a few tiers that I could envision:
1) Electricity! Yay - unlike the objects in the gravity simulator, we now have attraction and repulsion (... without resorting to negative masses or weird force laws, of course.) Could be nice and instructive, and fun to play with.
2) Electromagnetism. Kind of like the electric shocktopus, but just a sandbox for particles. And if you wiggled a charged particle, it would give off light. Sounds pretty cool, if a bit confusing to look at (picture all the field lines you'd need to understand how a light wave formed!)
3) 'Fake' Chemistry - In theory, with just electricity, we might be able to get some fake chemistry going on. Kind of like In Bond Breaker, say, where different particles attract or repel depending on how many 'electrons' are around their nucleus. This would probably not reflect the real world all that well, though... since for one thing many molecules are distinctly not 2D (think CH4), and I bet I'd have to leave out enough that some really strange stuff could happen. But it could certainly be a fun sandbox.
4) Real Chemistry - accurate virtual models... based on full quantum mechanical properties. I'll need a team of scientists and a decade.
5) Life - after millions of compute cycles, the molecules self-replicate, and grow into cellular and eventually multi-cellular life. I am their ruler.

Hm, I got a bit carried away.

Anyway, was one of those tiers what you had in mind? Or were you picturing something different?
I'm for Tier 4. After all, what else do you have to do? :D Don't pick Tier 5; created beings always turn on their creator. (Frankenstein and the Bible are prime examples of this.)
If, for some odd reason, Tier 4 doesn't sound appealing to work on, pick Tier 2.
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testtubegames
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Re: Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by testtubegames »

I'll start the grant applications for Tier 4 immediately :)
exfret
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Re: Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by exfret »

Frankenstein never actually turned on his creator. It's just his creator was so afraid he left Frankenstein, and then Frankenstein was brought into the world without a guide, without anyone to love. In the end, he didn't mean to kill many of the people he killed, but simply wanted to meet his creator. He never chose to be a monster. Oh wait, we were talking about an electromagnetism game? Sorry, I got a little off-topic. Well, Frankenstein was created by electricity anyways, right? ;)
Nobody ever notices my signature. ):
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testtubegames
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Re: Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by testtubegames »

exfret wrote:Frankenstein never actually turned on his creator.
Correction LEVEL 2: Frankenstein was the creator, not the creation.

Frankly, though, if I were to create an artificial form of life, I'd probably name them all Andy. Purely egocentricity on my part... but now at least I can rationalize it by claiming I'm 'preventing naming errors.'
AlternateGravity
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Re: Electromagnetic Simulator

Post by AlternateGravity »

I was more thinking of a simulation that would allow us to simulate atoms with the force from electric charge having a different drop off rate with distance. So for instance how would atoms arrange themselves if we had the inverse cube law for the force from electric charge instead of the inverse square law or how would atoms arrange themselves if the equation for the force from two charges was sin(r)?
Gravitons would be my favorite particle as their existence could prove extra dimensions.
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