Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!mephisto!mcnc!rti!sas!sassth
From: sassth@sas.UUCP (Steven Hand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga 1000 in Computers in Physics
Message-ID: <1563@sas.UUCP>
Date: 14 Feb 90 23:56:19 GMT
References: <3050@pur-phy>
Reply-To: sassth@sas.UUCP (Steven Hand)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 56

Computer Graphics World (Feb. '90, p.87) has a very good article,
"Quakes Shake on the Amiga", which discusses using an Amiga in seismology
research to to produce animations of earthquakes.  These have been shown
on several network TV programs, including ABC's "Prime Time Live".
Quoting from the article:

 "For the 2D animations, Klein and Walter digitized into the Amiga a map of 
 the California terrain using Digiview....This map served as a backdrop
 for their earthquake plots....
 
 The resulting animations resemble clusters of colorful, bursting bubbles.
 Each earthquake is first depicted as a filled circle for two frames
 (when the earthquake is at its strongest), then as an open circle for
 four frames (as the earthquake weakens and disappears).  The bubbles
 form "swarms" along the earthquake's fault lines and hot spots.  "You
 can see the time relationships a lot better," says Walter, comparing
 the animations to traditional paper plots of seismic activity."

They used an Amiga with 9 Meg of memory and Deluxe Paint III to do the
flipping between frames.  "The animations range from 10 seconds to
several minutes in length...." 

Even more interesting, it talks about three-dimensional underground 
plots of earthquakes, using spheres of various sizes and orientations
to show the earthquakes from below the surface!  It is too hard to
describe, but the article has a picture.  They use Videoscape 3D.
Quoting again:

 ...the 3D animation lets the viewer fly through what Klein calls
 "the little universe of objects."

This is the best example of "computer visualization" I've heard of.
Quoting again:

 "I think the beauty of this animation is to make something visible
 which ordinarily would not be visible -- because you can't look
 down and see earthquakes through the ground..."

Lastly, the article has good words for the Amiga.  Quoting again:
 
 Klein chose the Amiga for its animation capability.  It's "way ahead
 of what the Macintosh can do in terms of the speed of flipping through
 frames," he says.  And, he adds, "The cost of the machine is
 significantly less."

 I'm convinced it's useful," Walter says of the system.  "It made
 the earthquake a lot more real and the seismology a lot more
 understandable."

Not bad!  I recommend reading the article if you can get it; it discusses
other things, too.

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