This was a Physics I extra credit assignment that displays a system of objects in motion reacting to each others presence in accordance to Netwon’s Third Law. The algorithm was developed in a single function at first and used a spreadsheet to plot the path of the planet. After confirming that the method worked, I built a PyGame interface to display the graphics. The challenging part of this program was to display what was happening with the models in the simulation.

By developing a simple camera model that allows the user to change the position of the view and zoom. I also included a feature to keep a specific body in the center of the camera’s view port so that one could simulate our understanding of the solar system before the Copernican Revolution.

Videos

3 Bodies

Screenshots

Prototype

Application

Soure Code

The source is available on GitHub