BALLS

Animation of a Monatomic Gas

The animation in BALLS4.EXE shows 4 balls bouncing around inside a box. A red line divides the box in half. The percentage of the balls on each side of the box is displayed continuously above the box. Sometimes, all of the balls are on one side of the box.

The animation in BALLS50.EXE shows 50 balls bouncing around inside a box. Now, the percentage of the balls on each side of the box remains more near 50%. There are rarely more than 65% of the balls on one side of the box at a time. However, this animation has been "rigged" so that after about 50 seconds, all of the balls are on one side of the box at the same time. I estimate that if this animation were not rigged, this event would be seen only once every 50 million years (on the average). After this unusual event, the balls again return to random motion inside the box.

The animation in SMILE.EXE is like BALLS50.EXE, except that the unusual event is a smiley face.

OpenGL Version

The program recognizes the following commands. The command may be executed by either clicking the button with the mouse (first column below) or by pressing a key (second column below). The mouse buttons may be removed from the screen by pressing the M key. Press M again to restore buttons.

The program recognizes the following commands:
quitQ Quit program.
freezeF Smile program only: the animation stops at the smiley face.

DOS Version

Q Quit program.
F Smile program only: the animation stops at the smiley face.