Electric dance (CDF simulation)

Here’s an interactive about Electric dance (see this page for further details).

How to run a CDF Player simulation
download Electric dance.cdf

Notes

The interactive simulation was created with the software Wolfram Mathematica and it reproduces the dynamics of three charged particles initially located, at rest, at the vertices of an isosceles triangle.

The demonstration can be interactively used with the free (but hugely sized) CDF Player (see here how to install it).

The Mathematica code and the CDF file have been recently approved and published in the Wolfram Demonstration Project.

See also this YouTube video to get a taste of what’s in the interactive simulation.

After being used with the dynamics of the initial setting (equilateral triangle), it may be interesting to check the “Show full orbit traces” checkbox and see how the changes the {\theta _0} (initial position) affect the shape of the initial isosceles triangle and the ensuing trajectories: from quasi-cyclic to almost-cyclic to (apparently) periodic. The actual existence and stability of real periodic orbits is an open problem for me that I intend to investigate.

The change in the {\theta _0} parameter has a slow response as it triggers the full recalculation of the numerical solution of the differential equations that are behind the system dynamics.

Hint:
hold down the Alt key while moving a slider to make fine adjustments in the slider value.
Hold Ctrl and/or Shift at the same time as Alt to make ever finer adjustments.

Last edited 04 jan 2017