What
is it? |
This project models collisions between point-like objects. Each turtle moves around the screen, at a speed based on its
energy variable. When a turtle runs into a wall, its energy
value changes and it bounces off the wall.
When a turtle runs into another turtle, the turtles randomly
combine their energies and bounce off of each other in new
directions. |
How
to Use It |
Click the SETUP button to set up the colored walls and the
distribution of turtles. Click GO to start the turtles moving.
Click PD to watch the turtles draw as the move, and
click PU to stop the drawing.
CLEAR-PATH clears the trails which the turtles have left.
The NUMBER slider controls the number of turtles in the
simulation. (If you reset the number of turtles, you will
need to press GO again to stop the simulation and then
click SETUP for the changes to take effect.) |
 |
|
Things
to Notice |
Watch the distribution of the energy amoung the turtles.
What does this tell you about how much energy the turtle had to
begin with? About the way the turtles exchange energy?
What do you think would happen if there were walls to bounce off
of in the middle of the screen, as well as the edges?
|
Explorations |
The turtles don't exchange energy or bounce off of each other in
a realistic way. How would you change this project to more
closely model a physical situation? How do you think this
change would affect the motion of the simulation?
The distribution of energy among the turtles?
|
StarLogo Features |
This project demonstrates a simple use of the "grab" command, in the "collide" procedures. Grab provides an easy way for a turtle to communicate with one or more other turtles.
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