pel!gr~O's: these dangerously attractive shapes may, or may-not, rotate, but they're all actually the same shape... squares
more precisely, iNverse squares ~ every object in this scene is drawn toward every other object in the scene, by the inverse square of the distance between them

that sounds familiar! but this doesn't look familiar; that is to say, it actually does look familiar, except that it's instantly recognizable as something other than gravitational captivity

so, what is going on here? NOTHING is going on here ~ there is no programmed behavior in this scene; the ONLY thing happening is the attraction of every object to every other object

• collisions: there is no collision detection - shapes can NOT tell if they have 'collided' with another shape


• obstacles: there is no obstacle avoidance - shapes do not make any effort to avoid other shapes, and none of the shapes is considered an 'obstacle'


• deformation: objects do not alter their shape after they collide with something, neither do they orient themselves in ways to make their motions more hydrodynamically efficient


• crash detection: you may think you have seen an object which knew that it had been impacted with enough force to be 'destroyed' - that is not happening


• organization: if you think you're seeing multiple shapes coordinating their movements, you're not - there are NO collective objects, or multi-shape organisms, or collaborative behaviors


• flocking: ultimately, different objects may appear to have assembled the entire scene in such a way as to make a nearly permanent pathway for some recurring 'circulatory' motion - this is not happening

If nothing is happening, then what's happening?

first, there are a few things you might notice which actually are happening

• cyclical universe: objects are compelled through a cylical scene, and might be attracted to their own backs; while not technically an error, such an effect can't occur outside a cyclical environment


• atomic fission: though rare, it is possible for the position of an object to be such that its next calculated position will be INCREDIBLY far away; this IS a possible result of the calculation and occurs more often in tightly packed scenes


• lagged to hack-tic: depending on processing power, it is possible that one object's thread will lag and the object will seem to drift off; this is an error and should not happen


• jump cut: depending on processing power, it might happen that EVERY object will suddenly POP to a different location; this is a processing error and NOT a potential result of the calculation


• perma-ban: the code grows at O(n2) and can get pretty intense, it might happen that a particular object will simply freeze in place; this is a processing error - the equation MUST grow at that rate

ok, fine; but WHAT is going on here? HOW is this the same equation as gravity, but not producing the same results?

that's incredibly close to the equation for gravity - it only differs by having the attraction towards a location radiating from the center-point of other masses, instead of precisely to the center

all of these objects are much smaller than, say, THE MOON; so, for example, if the moon were attracted to a one-inch circle around the center of the earth, there would be no appreciable difference between that and just journeying to the center of the earth

this equation can, therefore, also be used to create gravity simulations of large objects; it differs dramatically when the dimensions are relatively much closer to the radius of the ring around the other object's center

double-click on the scene to pause, then you can click on an individual shape to view the Danger Bubbles as that shape sees them in the scene; remember, it's going to be the field view of every other object in the scene, so it might be a little confusing

double-click again to restart; click on the +|- to add and remove shapes, double-click them to re-add the initial shapes or blank the entire scene; you can, ofcourse, use the slider to magnify and drag the corner to resize the scene