N-body simulation

Question

Hi

I'm an very experienced programmer, and I ave build several n-body simulations in the past few years in Delphi, C# - working on GPU implementation

For a friend I am trying to setup an easy n-body simulation in Excel

I have a sun and several planets and I want to simulate them in timesteps of appr a week.

First I would like a numerical solution, with numerical output

Pressing F9 for each time step can get boring but is no real issue

Second I would like a neat visual result - but is by no means mandatory

Can you help me? Thanks!

Camiel

Answer 1

Here is a sample file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/10pefhq6dt2wgbk/17f862ad-0b27-4b6d-9980-e36246660bd3.xlsm?dl=1

Andreas.

Answer 2

This is great. My job is almost done already.

Thanks a lot.

Do you also have a SPH sample - specifically, of star formation

So I can play before I'm gonna build this into my c# solution?

Camiel

Answer 3

Can you give me a small code sample? To get me up to speed?

Thanks, Camiel

Answer 4

Hey, that's interesting, astrophysics is my hobby. :-)

In high-level languages, you can create resp. output the graphic yourself, but in Excel you have to use what the application supports.

If suggest to use 3D Bubble chart (and/or combined with an XY-Chart), sample:

All you have to do is to write the new XY positions into the cells, then call DoEvents and let the chart update, the animation is done.

Instead of a fixed color we can also use a picture an show the shape of a planet, see Earth.

You can scale the axis to implement a zoom/move feature.

BTW, do you have source code to calculate when a Jupiter moon casts a shadow on its surface?

As shown here: http://www.shallowsky.com/jupiter/

Andreas.