Negative Mass System
Similar
to the locked system, this was a fun endeavor made to show that modeling can
sometimes be wilder than the real universe.
The four locked planets in this system all have a negative mass!
Thus they repel rather than attract the small unlocked planet.
The small planet is continually pushed away as it tries to decrease
its potential energy. Solar
plane warping helps you visualize the inverse gravitation well produced by the
negative masses.
Special
Features Demonstrated:
-
Acceleration and Velocity Vectors
-
Negative Masses
-
Solar Plane Warping
Things
to try:
-
Note that this negative mass system is actually very unstable. It is only stable in 2 dimensions. But since we have given no z position values to anything in the system, the numerical calculation will stay stable as is. You could show the instability by giving any of the planets the slightest z offset for a starting position (try even 1E-6). So an extension to this system might be to add additional locked planets (with negative mass) to make the system truly stable in all 3 dimensions.