Articles by a Physicist

Chernobyl Simulation

An attempt to simulate the normal running, and then accident of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.

Simulation of flooding in New Orleans

A not-very-accurate simulation of the flooding in New Orleans.

Physics Algorithms Book

This is a work in progress to write a book on physics algorithms. At the moment, it is about 1/3 finished though, but the latest version can be downloaded for free.

Quantum Mechanics

A no-nonsense description of quantum mechanics with no maths or philosophy. The concepts are explained with animations, which are mainly computer simulations of electrons.

Quantum Mechanics for programmers

A quick demo showing how to make simulations of simple quantum mechanics systems in javascript.

Benzene QMC Gallery

A gallery of images from an attempt to model the benzene ground state using a variational and diffusion monte carlo method.

The double slit and observers

A look at the double slit experiment. The first half is meant to be a clear explanation, using simulations. The second half discusses some of the philosophy / interpretations of quantum mecahnics.

Quantum Monte Carlo

This is a series of articles where I try to use quantum monte carlo to get ground state energies of simple molecules.

Mars Lander

An interactive simulation of a Mars Lander trying to land on Mars. The term "interactive" here means that you have to write the software, in Javascript, that will land the probe.

Mars Re-Entry

A ThreeJS simulation of Mars re-entry in a spaceship.

Moon Formation

A Kotlin N-Body code, and lots of animations of the collision between Earth and a hypothetical Theia that people think created the moon.

How SpaceX land first stage boosters

The algorithms that SpaceX (probably) use to control their first stage boosters. Several animations.

Saturn's rings

A simulation of Saturn's rings --- a few thousand particles are simulated, in a repeating tiled region. You use the mouse and keys to fly in it.

Atmosphere

A simple demo of a simulation of an atmosphere. It looks quite cool, but there's not a lot you can do with it yet, and the physics isn't yet all that accurate.

Experimental Flying Game

Fly around in a plane. Some physics, but mainly just playing with websockets. If you can get a friend to play at the same time, you should be able to shoot each other down.

Asciiship

My latest (early 2018) thing is just a "normal" game: no real physics. It's just a game.

How to simulate fractal ice crystal growth in Python

This presents python code to draw snowflakes, simulating a diffusion process with Fourier transforms.

Monogame Shaders

Brief notes on how to use shaders in Monogame. This is maybe useful if you're trying to do exactly the same, and want to follow my steps exactly to get something working.