💫 Orbits

Orbits simulation using just Newton's Law with p5.js in JavaScript to illustrate orbital mechanics.

Sample

Code

Newton's law of universal gravitation is used to calculate a force magnitude between two bodies. The direction of the force depends on the position of the bodies. This two components result in a acceleration vector applied to the current velocity and then to the current position.

calculateForce(body) {
  let G = 10; // Universal gravitational constant
  let r = this.position.dist(body.position); // Distance between bodies	
  let F = G * (this.mass * body.mass) / (r * r); // Newton's law of universal gravitation
  return F; // Resulting force
}

gravity(body) {
  let force = p5.Vector.sub(body.position, this.position); // Direction	
  force.setMag(this.calculateForce(body)); // Magnitude
  this.acceleration.add(force); // Apply acceleration
}

move() {
  this.velocity.add(this.acceleration); // Speed
  this.position.add(this.velocity); // Position	
}