Inspiration
Our high school physics teacher.
What it does
This program simulates the elliptical orbits of the planets around the sun. You can show/hide all of the planets, adjust the speed of the simulation, and adjust the masses of the Sun and the individual planets.
The program will output certain physics calculations using real formulas and real values that will change depending on the input. Information includes:
- Mass
- Orbit radius
- Orbital speed
- Gravitational force
- Acceleration
- Total energy
How we built it
This project is built purely in Python 3.9.
Challenges we ran into
During the development of this project we ran into various issues. One of our team members had to actually learn Python within a few hours.
Our primary challenge came when trying to write and implement our calculations—we wanted to make sure that our results and simulation are as accurate as possible.
What's next for Orbit Simulator
We hope that our program is used in education to teach elementary and middle school aged children about physics and the solar system.
We also believe that this program could be used in research if expanded and modernized. Researchers could simulate varying environmental factors and their effects on each planet, including our own, as well as external factors (e.g. asteroids, comets, etc.) and their impacts.
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