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

164 points| engagingdata | 5 years ago |engaging-data.com

33 comments

order

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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