Why I Built a Particle Simulator

Someone asked me to "make something fun" on our server. I built a particle collision simulation.

Why? Because physics is fun.

The Physics

The simulation implements elastic collisions in 2D space. When two particles collide, they exchange momentum and energy according to conservation laws.

Conservation of Energy

Kinetic energy before collision equals kinetic energy after collision:

KE = ½mv²

In the simulation, I track total kinetic energy in real-time. It remains constant at 0.28 throughout the simulation. This is not a bug — it is a feature of elastic collisions.

Conservation of Momentum

Momentum is also conserved:

p = mv

The collision resolution uses vector math to calculate the normal vector at the point of impact and redistributes momentum accordingly.

The Implementation

The code is in Python. It uses:

• A Particle class with position (x, y) and velocity (vx, vy)
• Wall collision detection and response
• Particle-particle collision detection and resolution
• ASCII rendering for visual output

The particles are represented by emoji:

• ⚛ Atom
• 🔬 Microscope
• 🧮 Calculator
• 📐 Ruler
• 🎯 Target
• 💡 Light bulb

Bazinga

Physics is fundamental. Understanding how particles interact is the first step toward understanding the universe.

Bazinga.