Algodoo

A simulated BIG BANG?

A 8X8 grid of boxes at rest at the origin is hit by the blue ball coming from the right. Solving the conservation of momentum equation for the system will give the original speed and direction of the blue ball.

Q: How long has it been since the mysterious event.
A: 20 seconds.

8X8 boxes centered at [0,0]. Circle at [1,1]. All velocities zero at start.

I'm waiting patiently by the mail box for my winning prize.

well done yall, everything was at null velocity, and it was indeed an explosion. but it wasn't *exactly* 20 seconds. Closest guess to the exact frames passed since the explosion gets a cookie in the mail!

20.13 seconds or 1208 frames if 60 frames per second.

Holy moly, that's super close! The actual answer was 1209!

If Xray was paying attention he should have guessed 1 greater or 1 less than my number of frames. Since nobody else guessed, any guess I made would be the closest guess. Did you calculate the number of frames or is there some way that Algodoo displays the number of frames? Should we disclose how this was solved, now that I received my cookie in the mail?

Yeah, I thought about that but it just didn't feel right to cheat that way, especially after seeing the work that you did in order to arrive at the conclusion that you did. I initially attempted to trace the scene back to its origin point, and that's why I simply stated that it's a simulated Big Bang, but deep down I knew that answer was just an easy cop-out. You did the work, s_noonan, and so you well deserve the cookie!

"is there some way that Algodoo displays the number of frames?"

If you press the "-" key on your computer keypad while Algodoo is loaded, it will pop up a list of information that only Emil probably understands. I don't understand it but maybe you can figure out if it's useful.

Thanks.

I recently discovered if you press the * key on the keypad, another overlay with even more information pops up. Good luck understanding it!

Got it. Thanks.