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Pesky Critters!

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Author: Xray

Group: Default

Filesize: 0.72 MB

Date added: 2020-02-25

Rating: 6.1

Downloads: 1852

Views: 560

Comments: 5

Ratings: 3

Times favored: 0

Made with: Algodoo v2.1.0

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The poor clown face gets constantly annoyed by a swarm of houseflies. They attack and land on him, and he tries very hard to shake them off. Start the scene, then sit back and watch what happens over the next few minutes.

Now, here's a real head-scratcher for you programming wizards who like to try to figure out strange anomalies....
This scene was made without any Thyme scripting, and it was made without any Algodoo motors, thrusters, or any other form of mechanical devices that seem to be driving the movements of the clown. There are no hidden devices, and I did nothing funny like changing the wind direction or messing with the gravity parameters. What you see in the scene is all there is! So, someone explain in the comments how the clown shakes the flies off of himself. The first person to figure it out will win bragging rights here on Algobox! Go get 'em, Tiger!

UPDATE: Clown would occasionally shake so hard that it would shoot through the barrier wall into deep space, and so I increased the sim frequency which should reduce the likelihood of that happening.
Last edited at 2020/02/25 16:03:00 by Xray
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Title: Pesky Critters! -- Explained
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Date added: 2020/02/27 03:42:52
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s_noonan
2020/02/25 09:49:40
I see what you did but that does not explain why it does it.
Luezma
2020/02/26 05:55:08
Well, in Algodoo, boxes and polygons in general don't have a distributed mass, instead, they have a center of mass which is the pivot point for the simulated gravity formula. The clown has a positive attraction so it interacts with every entity arround, including those without attraction. If you pay close attention, this simulation just looks like a very elliptical orbit of an object orbiting another very heavy object.

HA!

[Edit] The wooden square's center of mass is literally on it's center, explaining the clown's orbit
Last edited at 2020/02/26 05:56:36 by Luezma
Xray
2020/02/26 17:48:07
Luezma -- You are correct about how attraction works in Algodoo, and it explains how the little flies swarm around and then stick to the clown, but it doesn't explain what makes the clown do its "shaking" motions as if it was trying to shake the flies off of it.

I think I'll give this another day or two, and then I will divulge some observations that I have made about that unusual movement. Hint: Even I do not fully understand why the clown circle acts the way it does. I discovered that strange motion accidentally while I was experimenting with the mass and attraction parameters of orbiting bodies.

Thanks for commenting!

EDIT: Luezma -- Your edited comment is correct! HOORAY, YOU WON THE PRIZE! Good job. :tup:

I will be posting a response scene to this one with the explanation.
Last edited at 2020/02/27 03:16:12 by Xray
Vinayak
2020/07/12 15:41:51
Since you all figured this wacky physics out, I'd like to add that if you do want a better simulation of gravity with objects whose center of mass (CoM) lies outside the object, you can cut it up into sections and glue them together again.
This way Algodoo calculates the attraction for the CoM of every segment, instead of the whole object at once, so bodies are attracted properly to the object and not the CoM (the CoM is not a real, physical object in real life, just an imaginary simplification. In this case it leads to an attractive force despite the fact that there is no mass at all at that location).
The reason the clown sometimes flies off is due to the fact that attractive force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. If the object can somehow reach very close to the center of the other (normally prohibited by the fact that the bodies cannot pass through each other, but in this case there is nothing at the CoM to stop it) then the force skyrockets, object flies off:)
Xray
2020/07/12 16:14:15
Vinayak -- Thanks for the excellent explanation about how CoM works in Algodoo! :tup: