A Peek in the Tubes

April 5, 2023

Listen, I know I’m talking your ear off with all these blog posts! I apologize. I’ll do them less frequently.

But — if you’re not following along in the Discord, or my Mastodon account, or creepily peeking over my shoulder with your telephoto lens from a nearby building – you could be forgiven for not knowing what’s happening here at TestTubeGames headquarters.

So here’s an update on one of my current projects…

Dark Matter Explainer

Working with Shaun Hotchkiss (of Cosmology Talks fame) and Richard Easther (of Auckland University fame) to build a Dark Matter simulator/explainer. Picture “Why do Astronauts Float?“, but for Dark Matter.

Turns out, oddly, the hard part isn’t modelling Dark Matter. Gravity Simulator does a pretty good job of that already! Dark Matter is notorious for just feeling the force of gravity… which is what those planets do, too. Sure, maybe Dark Matter is a bit more spread out than a planet, but the same rules apply.

No, the hard thing is recreating Normal Matter. Dreadful stuff, honestly. It clumps and bounces and pushes with electromagnetic forces. The universe would be better off without it, I say. But, in order to understand Dark Matter, I suppose we should understand Normal Matter.

So that’s where my work is right now, building a simulation that can handle Dark and Normal Matter — all while running in the browser and spitting beautiful bon mots at you. “Try changing how much dark matter we have.” Inspirational.

Follow along in the aforementioned Discord, or Mastodon, or just hope beyond hope that I remember to post here sometime this decade.

A Bit of Fun

Since you deserve it, no really, you’ve earned it! – here’s a little level to test your Electric Shocktopus skills.

Give it a play (for free! today! in your browser!) — by clicking here.

And go congratulate James, the creator of the fun level, by joining us in the forums.

That’s all for now. Until next time — may your internal pressure overpower your gravitational attraction!

-Andy