Visible Gravity

[HallowedError]

I think it would be neat to show gravity. It would be interesting to do this in 3d where a flat plane slopes downword to show the intensity of the gravity.
An up-down view could also be interesting if interpreted as colors.

I do realize that the 2d/3d grid does this as well, but I just thought these were easier to interpret.
Thanks.

[APODman]

One brazilian friend made a gravity simulator that shows the gravitational field:

- http://fabio.c.barros.googlepages.com/gravitysimulator

( He discontinued the development of the software. )

I agree that this feature ( show the gravitational field ) is a nice thing. It can be implemented in Universe Sandbox ?


[ ]´s

[HallowedError]

Wow, that looks really nice. Too bad he's discontinued it, looks like it could go pretty far.

[Dan Dixon]

APODman:
That's very cool. I haven't seen that program before. Cheers to your friend.

It's totally possible to add that to Universe Sandbox. It's just a mater of throwing a day or two at it. Adding a straight forward gravity visualization has been on my list of things to do.

Like HallowedError said you can kind-of do this with the grid feature. Check out the activity Gravity Flower for instructions.

HallowedError:
What do you mean by an up-down view interpreted as colors?

[HallowedError]

Haha, now that I really think about it I'm not sure that the 'up-down' view I was think about would work correctly unless all the bodies were on the same 2D plane.
If you were only looking at one body though, you could select it click a button and everything but that body goes away and you can zoom in and out to see how far and how much it's gravity effects stuff. You might need a reference for scale after so far though. You could use a rainbow like effect and something like a dark purple would be the least effect and farthest out, while red was closest and had the most effect. Somebody else might have a better way to implement this than colors though.

[Dan Dixon]

A 2D only mode would be easy and would make a 2D grid like the image on this site work appropriately:
http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/dark_energy/de-did_einstein_predict.php

It that what you meant by up-down view?

[HallowedError]

More or less yeah. Hope to see it soon.