Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!imagine!pawl20.pawl.rpi.edu!kyriazis
From: kyriazis@pawl20.pawl.rpi.edu (George Kyriazis)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Particle systems and simulation
Message-ID: <609@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Date: 3 Apr 88 21:02:56 GMT
Sender: news@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU
Reply-To: kyriazis@mts.rpi.edu (George Kyriazis)
Organization: RPI Public Access Workstation Lab - Troy, NY
Lines: 28


	Hello world.  I am about to start a project about simulating rigid
bodies or fluids made out of particles, and I want to ask some questions 
before beginning.
	I think these are the right newsgroups, so that's why I started from 
here.  What I like to know is references on where I can find more info about
that subject.  The problem is not simply simulating the movements of these
particles.  What is the problem is that the naive method is of O(n*n)
(calculating n-1 forces exerted to every particle).  Since I am not into
physics very much, what I'd like to find is any simplifications on that.
I heard something about calculating the forces from the nearest neighbors
only.  Are there any more opinions on that?  Also calculating closest
neighborhood in 2-d or even 3-d for the next time step from the previous
neighborhood is difficult.  Are there any data structures or algorithms
that can (easily) handle this kind of thing?
Lastly, what kind of forces (other than the attractive and repulsive forces
between atoms) do I have to take into account?  Maybe there are any moments
also?
	Thanks in advance for the help..


*******************************************************
*George C. Kyriazis                                   *    Gravity is a myth
*kyriazis@mts.rpi.edu or kyriazis@rpitsmts.bitnet     *        \    /
*kyriazis@life.pawl.rpi.edu  kyriazis@docsun.rpi.edu  *         \  / 
*Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering Dept.    *          || 
*Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180     *      Earth sucks
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