This animated image has a long history. It was forked from a pen by Gerrard Ferrandez as a JavaScript conversion of a *processing* sketch by Future Data Lab, which was based on Spheres – v.1.0.0 – 2014/01/03 processingjs.org (now archived) HEADER ANIMATION, MIT License – F1lT3R/Hyper-Metrix modified by Casey Reas, (Processing PDE file) 7 Nov 2013 and by slsdo, 3 Jan 2014. This pen, created on October 26, 2015 and updated on May 16, 2017, features a simple mass-spring system.

The motion of a mechanical system caused by external forces can be modelled with physics-based simulations. For a set of parts connected by Hookean springs, the equations of motion can be formulated and solved to predict the dynamic behavior of such systems. Even for simple abstractions, however, the calculations involved are complex using ordinary differential equations with Euler’s method, or Newton’s method and are difficult to perform. We are in awe of the results of even simple attempts to show this graphically. Looking at this animated graphic of spheres is very relaxing and is one of our favourites.  Use your mouse to drag the spheres around.