What are some algorithms that will allow me to simulate planetary physics?

Question

I\'m interested in doing a \"Solar System\" simulator that will allow me to simulate the rotational and gravitational forces of planets and stars.

I\'d like to be able t

Answer 1

If you're simulating physics, I highly recommend Box2D.
It's a great physics simulator, and will really cut down the amount of boiler plate you'll need, with physics simulating.

Answer 2

You need to know and understand Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. These two are simple and I'm sure you've heard about them, if not studied them in high school. Finally, if you want your simulator to be as accurate as possible, you should familiarize yourself with the n-Body problem.

You should start out simple. Try making a Sun object and an Earth object that revolves around it. That should give you a very solid start and it's fairly easy to expand from there. A planet object would look something like:

Class Planet {
  float x;
  float y;
  float z; // If you want to work in 3D
  double velocity;
  int mass;
}

Just remember that F = MA and the rest just just boring math :P

Answer 3

It's everything here and in general, everything that Jean Meeus has written.

Answer 4

Dear Friend here is the graphics code that simulate solar system

Kindly refer through it

/*Arpana*/

#include<stdio.h>
#include<graphics.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<math.h>
#include<dos.h>
void main()
{
int i=0,j=260,k=30,l=150,m=90;
int n=230,o=10,p=280,q=220;
float pi=3.1424,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,z;
int gd=DETECT,gm;
initgraph(&gd,&gm,"c:\tc\bgi");
outtextxy(0,10,"SOLAR SYSTEM-Appu");
outtextxy(500,10,"press any key...");
circle(320,240,20);               /* sun */
setfillstyle(1,4);
floodfill(320,240,15);
outtextxy(310,237,"sun");
circle(260,240,8);
setfillstyle(1,2);
floodfill(258,240,15);
floodfill(262,240,15);
outtextxy(240,220,"mercury");
circle(320,300,12);
setfillstyle(1,1);
floodfill(320,298,15);
floodfill(320,302,15);
outtextxy(335,300,"venus");
circle(320,160,10);
setfillstyle(1,5);
floodfill(320,161,15);
floodfill(320,159,15);
outtextxy(332,150, "earth");
circle(453,300,11);
setfillstyle(1,6);
floodfill(445,300,15);
floodfill(448,309,15);
outtextxy(458,280,"mars");
circle(520,240,14);
setfillstyle(1,7);
floodfill(519,240,15);
floodfill(521,240,15);
outtextxy(500,257,"jupiter");
circle(169,122,12);
setfillstyle(1,12);
floodfill(159,125,15);
floodfill(175,125,15);
outtextxy(130,137,"saturn");
circle(320,420,9);
setfillstyle(1,13);
floodfill(320,417,15);
floodfill(320,423,15);
outtextxy(310,400,"urenus");
circle(40,240,9);
setfillstyle(1,10);
floodfill(38,240,15);
floodfill(42,240,15);
outtextxy(25,220,"neptune");
circle(150,420,7);
setfillstyle(1,14);
floodfill(150,419,15);
floodfill(149,422,15);
outtextxy(120,430,"pluto");
getch();
while(!kbhit())             /*animation*/
{
a=(pi/180)*i;
b=(pi/180)*j;
c=(pi/180)*k;
d=(pi/180)*l;
e=(pi/180)*m;
f=(pi/180)*n;
g=(pi/180)*o;
h=(pi/180)*p;
z=(pi/180)*q;
cleardevice();
circle(320,240,20);
setfillstyle(1,4);
floodfill(320,240,15);
outtextxy(310,237,"sun");

circle(320+60*sin(a),240-35*cos(a),8);
setfillstyle(1,2);
pieslice(320+60*sin(a),240-35*cos(a),0,360,8);
circle(320+100*sin(b),240-60*cos(b),12);
setfillstyle(1,1);
pieslice(320+100*sin(b),240-60*cos(b),0,360,12);
circle(320+130*sin(c),240-80*cos(c),10);
setfillstyle(1,5);
pieslice(320+130*sin(c),240-80*cos(c),0,360,10);
circle(320+170*sin(d),240-100*cos(d),11);
setfillstyle(1,6);
pieslice(320+170*sin(d),240-100*cos(d),0,360,11);
circle(320+200*sin(e),240-130*cos(e),14);
setfillstyle(1,7);
pieslice(320+200*sin(e),240-130*cos(e),0,360,14);
circle(320+230*sin(f),240-155*cos(f),12);
setfillstyle(1,12);
pieslice(320+230*sin(f),240-155*cos(f),0,360,12);
circle(320+260*sin(g),240-180*cos(g),9);
setfillstyle(1,13);
pieslice(320+260*sin(g),240-180*cos(g),0,360,9);
circle(320+280*sin(h),240-200*cos(h),9);
setfillstyle(1,10);
pieslice(320+280*sin(h),240-200*cos(h),0,360,9);
circle(320+300*sin(z),240-220*cos(z),7);
setfillstyle(1,14);
pieslice(320+300*sin(z),240-220*cos(z),0,360,7);
delay(20);
i++;
j++;
k++;
l++;
m++;
n++;
o++;
p++;
q+=2;
}
getch();
}

Answer 5

In physics this is known as the N-Body Problem. It is famous because you can not solve this by hand for a system with more than three planets. Luckily, you can get approximate solutions with a computer very easily.

A nice paper on writing this code from the ground up can be found here.

However, I feel a word of warning is important here. You may not get the results you expect. If you want to see how:

1. the mass of a planet affects its orbital speed around the Sun, cool. You will see that.
2. the different planets interact with each other, you will be bummed.

The problem is this.

Yeah, modern astronomers are concerned with how Saturn's mass changes the Earth's orbit around the Sun. But this is a VERY minor effect. If you are going to plot the path of a planet around the Sun, it will hardly matter that there are other planets in the Solar System. The Sun is so big it will drown out all other gravity. The only exceptions to this are:

1. If your planets have very elliptical orbits. This will cause the planets to potentially get closer together, so they interact more.
2. If your planets are almost the exact same distance from the Sun. They will interact more.
3. If you make your planets so comically large they compete with the Sun for gravity in the outer Solar System.

To be clear, yes, you will be able to calculate some interactions between planets. But no, these interactions will not be significant to the naked eye if you create a realistic Solar System.

Try it though, and find out!

Answer 6

All you need to implement is proper differential equation (Keplers law) and using Runge-Kutta. (at lest this worked for me, but there are probably better methods)

There are loads of such simulators online.

Here is one simple one implemented in 500lines of c code. (montion algorhitm is much less) http://astro.berkeley.edu/~dperley/programs/ssms.html.

Also check this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_problem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-body_problem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-body_problem