Iceberg simulator – draw an iceberg and see how it floats and melts

tom_mellior 5 years ago |

The premise of the original simulator was to show how (reasonably shaped) icebergs actually float. This one adds melting and says: "his new code actually takes material away from the surface of the iceberg in a uniform way. It works more like you would expect melting ice to behave." But this is not how I would expect a melting iceberg to behave at all, and I'm fairly sure that -- unlike the floating part -- this is not now icebergs actually melt.

There is no reason to believe that the air and the water around the iceberg are the same temperature or otherwise in a state where melting would be completely uniform. This changes a somewhat scientific simulation into an unscientific toy.

runarberg 5 years ago | |

I just consider this a toy (just like the previous implementation). The melting is a super fun feature indeed. Try drawing and upside down capital lambda spanning the entire canvas:

     _    _
    | |  //
    | | //
    | |//
    |__/

Try not to draw perfect lines. At first the iceberg has the two tops standing out, which is fun, then as it melts and starts breaking a part around the thinnest parts, it is super fun to see how it reacts. Eventually you will end up with a bunch of slim topice floating on the surface.

nonpolitic 5 years ago | |

How far do we want to take this simulation :-) it's also 2d, which is probably a more serious concern given the way the mass distribution reacts to each increase in dimensionality.

JoBrad 5 years ago | | |

Version 3 will explore using AR to realistically melt icebergs.

We already have version 15 in beta testing. It’s the Arctic. Melting seems to have gone too far. Should be fixed in the prod release.

ranit 5 years ago | | |

Unfortunately this version 15 is deployed in production already and it will be very difficult to fix it :-(

capableweb 5 years ago | |

The initial simulation was nothing more than a toy either. The world is not 2D and to assume so when considering physics, seems not very scientific.

This is just another toy built on top of a toy.

ineedasername 5 years ago | | |

There were also no penguins or polar bears, which might be possible in the real world but doesn't seem probably after drawing at least 10,000 large icebergs. None showed up. So, not biologically realistic either. I'm off to draw another 10,000 now to if their impact on local weather pattern is appropriately modeled.

tinus_hn 5 years ago | | |

The original simulation featured negative weight areas.

yumraj 5 years ago |

Last time it was posted, someone had found it behaves weirdly with an infinity symbol shaped iceberg.

I tried it with this one, and yes, that issue is still there, though it seems to be better. Now most of them split into two icebergs, but some just jump away..

Try it..

apocalyptic0n3 5 years ago | |

I just tried it and the first attempt immediately jumped out of frame with a rapid spin before suddenly appearing near the bottom of the water and floating up calmly. I've tried like 40 more since and have yet to reproduce it. I wonder what caused that.

mft_ 5 years ago | |

My first attempt went totally crazy - like the last version posted :)

runarberg 5 years ago |

This made me realize how much the Continental USA looks like a seahorse if you flip it on its side. The east coast is the head with Florida as its ears and the West Coast is the tail curled up

paragraft 5 years ago |

Fun. There's something captivating about watching a melting shape.

Bug: countries from the Southern Hemisphere are mirrored left-to-right. AFAICT NH countries are ok. Something

nanis 5 years ago |

Hmmm ... Turkey is constrained to Anatolia without Thrace.

dheera 5 years ago |

Please add Indonesia, it would be fun with its 15000 islands. Also South Africa, which has a hole in it.

cube00 5 years ago |

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26201160

danaliv 5 years ago | |

This is a different site with more functionality.

macjohnmcc 5 years ago |

Something isn't quite right with Florida. The majority of it just disappears once there is a break due to melting.

overcast 5 years ago | |

"Something isn't quite right with Florida."

You can say that again.

NoOneNew 5 years ago | | |

Y'all just jealous we have sunshine year round and NASA.

8bitsrule 5 years ago | | |

I've always been fond of Florida. It and it's people seem colorful and are certainly amusing. Of course, I've never visited it, and never will. So YMMV.

NoOneNew 5 years ago | | |

Grew up on florida, in a 10 year span I lived in 4 other states, then moved back. I always ended up having a circle of friends comprised of cops. The "Florida man" trope is just because our arrest records are public record unlike other states. There are plenty of Washington, Virginia, Oregon and Colorado man/woman stories out there getting naked, oiling themselves up, smoking meth and robbing places. I know way too many cops who are tired of arresting naked drunks/tweakers from around the country.

drivers99 5 years ago | |

Just realized why people were talking about states and countries. I picked Colorado and a trapezoid appeared. I thought that was just a default shape and the selection had something to do with climate and/or elevation.

guiriduro 5 years ago |

Most fun was Japan because of the islands, interesting that it took Hokkaido longest to stabilise.

ineedasername 5 years ago |

Every single iceberg I tried always converged on 89.0% submerged.

marton78 5 years ago |

Great Britain is missing Northern Ireland.

yesenadam 5 years ago | |

Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) doesn't include Northern Ireland. The UK (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) does.

On the other hand, Great Britain "includes islands, such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland, that are part of England, Wales, or Scotland".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain

twelvechairs 5 years ago | | |

[Edit for clairity: responding to 'On the other hand, Great Britain "includes islands...']

Even your quote starts with "Great Britain is an island", though it later goes into "Politically, Great Britain refers to the whole of England, Scotland and Wales in combination".

So realistically its correct both ways - you can use it as a geographical term excluding islands or a political term including islands

yesenadam 5 years ago | | |

Not sure of your point at all, I find your comment totally confusing in at least 3 different places. Not worth going into I guess. Mine was mainly just that it doesn't include Northern Ireland. I only mentioned the other islands as it would be nice to see them in iceberg form. :-)

onorton 5 years ago | | |

As someone who lives there, I would use "Britain" to include the other islands in England, Scotland and Wales but most people here don't refer to the main island specifically.

walrus01 5 years ago | |

maybe the creator of the site is just a really enthusiastic star trek fan

https://www.irishpost.com/news/star-trek-the-next-generation...

croisillon 5 years ago |

instead of "simply" melting, maybe you could also show the sea/air temperatures?

khaki54 5 years ago |

Michigan and Chile are pretty fun