I was reading io9 the other day and ran across this article about Jared Tarbell’s use of orbits to create art. He has two different variations on the creation algorithm. Variation A uses a myriad of root nodes, each of which follows a vertical path and is orbited by several other nodes. The resulting creations tend to resemble horrid wallpaper from the 60s and 70s. Variation B is more interesting to look at. Its creations are akin to the way a real universe works (using a central node about which all other nodes orbit) and each picture is the summation of 400 years worth of orbits. They’re fun little applets to play with and he includes the source code as well (which I may add is fairly easy to follow). The only thing I wish he’d add is a way to change the number of orbital years in order to simulate varying ages in universes. It’d be interesting to do an analysis on the development of these universes as a chaotic dynamical system.
It’s also useful to note that the applets he supplies are coded using Processing. Processing was also used in the chess AI Thinking Machine which I wrote about earlier. I’ve started to see more and more applets and data visualizations done with Processing and am thinking of toying around with it as soon as I finish my Math Post-Baccalaureate. I’m sure the Sector would get a huge kick out of me posting the travesties that I’ll be developing. Anyone know if we can embed Java applets in wordpress?
I don’t really know if we can do Java applets. Maybe via plugin.
Also, check out FLOSS Weekly Episode 52 with guys from Processing: http://www.twit.tv/floss52