Motion of a Particle Colliding with Massive Objects
Motion of a Particle Colliding with Massive Objects
This Demonstration shows the path that a particle would take given an initial position, velocity, and a direction of a constant gravitational field, and how the path changes when the particle collides elastically with an rigid solid with boundary defined by a Cartesian equation. When the gravitational-well model is selected, the solid object serves as the source of gravitational attraction, with a law of force.
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The motion of the particle is determined by Newton's universal law of gravitation. The particle's motion after a collision with the boundary is computed using implicit differentiation and 2D vector reflection.