Creating animations for physic demonstrations

[Nickolas Hein]

Good evening,

I'm giving a talk to a calculus class at Janesville Craig High School next Thursday about using calculus to create a simulation of a bicycle in hilly terrain.  I previously used Geogebra to do a rocket simulation for a similar task, but my skills are really not up to it is as this time the vehicle will be constrained to move along the (changing height) ground.  Is there anyone here who is handy at making interactive Geogebra lessons, or knows of a better animation package (preferably simple) that I could use instead.  I have seen many that are theoretical possibilities, but all have too big a learning curve for my taste. (MS Physics, Blender, Unity....)

Thanks,

Nick

Link to rocket simulation:  https://www.geogebra.org/calculator/juhchvjr

--

Nick Hein
Madison, WI

[Chris Meyer]

Processing is very powerful and an easy environment for basic physics:

processing.org

there might be some already built packages you could use:

https://www.reddit.com/r/processing/comments/18jovnu/ideas_for_my_own_2d_physics_engine_library_in/

there's a lot of code out there for it.

Chris

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sector67 Public" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sector67+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAEY%3DSUUzk1sT_G5GJQdbsPwx%2BurfGmjA%3D9RDOBKW3s6aFMny1w%40mail.gmail.com.

[mark ptak]

Hey nick….

Processing is also the bones behind the khan academy coding learning platform.    You will find a bunch of forkable examples there.

Good luck

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CA%2BMP_mG-NxH8QpLL0-J9zT1ULsppR9iGMDiNhLqBFh3g0OTasQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nickolas Hein]

I guess I should clarify here that I'm just looking to animate the objects I'm making - in this case a car going around a track with hills.  I'm doing the physics myself, I just need something that will let me define the environment and place the car on the ground as it goes around the track.   Extra points if I can put plots on the side to show variables of interest.

Thanks,

Nick

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CANojAuLM99LPdj7j5aW9hBXnTdAJ8cNc-v5yOrFr1QAuyU9ezg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Markus Schumann]

Nick,

you are describing an almost full featured car simulator - I'd start with something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TORCS

Use in research
Due to its openness, modularity and extensibility, TORCS has been adopted as a base for many research projects; examples include automated computation of car setups, human-assisted algorithmic generation of tracks and the application of several computing techniques (e.g. genetic programming) to different aspects of robot driving.

Markus.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAEY%3DSUXQswE5YyNBZZ8U0kKBEizYxDocJ%3DkNh%2BR7LB1n9C9%3Dpw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Dennis Adams]

Perhaps not perfectly aligned with what you need here, but the framework used by 3Blue1Brown visualizations is available. 

///d@

On Apr 6, 2025, at 9:59 AM, Markus Schumann <go4...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAOQwu%3DGqm8N4-X-PsTeNCu9%2BYPtwG_tH9pLmJRJnM_9GpUfCgw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nickolas Hein]

Good morning,

I'd like to give notice here that I've found a solution to my physics animation need with Google Gemini AI.  On the recommendation of someone (far) outside my normal circle I tried it and was able to get this simulation model up and running with about 8 hours of non-dedicated effort.  This has the tremendous advantage of generating code that I can transport elsewhere or merge into an application of my own creation.  However, my programming experience is a generation or 2 out of date and all my languages are long dead.  I'm looking for a fellow student of AI with similar aims that can help guide me in Java Script and whatever environments I need to learn to make this an independent application.   Here is a screenshot of the animation.

For context, it shows a conventional bike starting next to a streamlined bike.  Parameters of the conventional bike are fixed at typical values (mass, drag coeff, area, rolling resistance) while the mass, drag and area of the streamlined bike can be varied.  Running the simulation shows that although the conventional bike is lighter and accelerates faster initially, it is quickly overtaken by the heavier streamlined bike - even on the hill climb.

You can run it interactively at this link.

https://g.co/gemini/share/9566203282e5