Archived I'm a computational scientist, ask me stuff about computer simulations! (whatever)
submitted ago by The_Cat
Posted by: The_Cat
Posting time: 3.6 years ago on
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Archived on: 7/28/2017 10:00:00 AM
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18 upvotes, 1 downvotes (95% upvoted it)
Archived I'm a computational scientist, ask me stuff about computer simulations! (whatever)
submitted ago by The_Cat
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[–] Awakening 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I like stuff too. Seriously, what language do you usually write in? Where might one start without any experience whatsoever in creating simulation programs?
[–] The_Cat [S] 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
You can do a lot of fancy stuff in Python. I use it both for automation of heavy stuff and direct calculation of stuff that's not too resource intensive. It also has the advantage of being concise and really easy to learn. But it really invites you to write fuckery, and fuckery you shall write. But it works, kind of.
If you want to write more serious stuff, C++ is pretty good. Java if that's your jam.
The real top-of-the-line stuff is all either C or Fortran. You can't beat those. I sometimes screw around with these, but mostly use software that others have developed.
And on how to get started: there are plenty of tutorials online, especially if you know/want to learn Python. An octree-based implementation of an N-body gravitational simulation (google the terms you don't know) is pretty easy to write and pretty cool to see the results of. Some simple (in)elastic collisions shouldn't be too hard to fiddle around with either. I sadly don't know any proper material, but please let me know if you find something good.
I'd like to point you towards some interesting open source molecular/solid state stuff, but I'm afraid that kind of software doesn't make much sense unless you have some background in quantum mechanics.
[–] Awakening 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Wow, thanks for the awesome reply.
I do have some background in physics, ever since Columbus created gravity in 1705 I have always been interested in physics. Please point me in that direction :) Seriously, I love quantum mechanics, string theories, astrophysics and peanut butter.