How to create repulsive forces for spheres

Questions
1

Hello,

I would like to create spheres with “electric charges” such that they would repel if they are the same charge and attract if opposite. I haven’t found a way to do this with the CannonJS API and was wondering if anyone had some ideas.

Ideally, I would like to add a function to the physics engine called on every update that:

  1. determined the effective “electric field” caused by the particles as a function of space
  2. and from that determine for each sphere the force felt by that sphere in response to that field.

Thanks for you help!
Tess

2

Hello and welcome to the forum !!!

I wonder if you should first try to do a playground with all the related code before trying to move it further.

My guess is you could compute the “electric field” and from this use impulse to translate it into a “moving” force.

Some way better people than me will probably jump in the thread soon like @trevordev for instance

3

Hi, I really don’t know what the proper way of working with physics is, but this works:

https://playground.babylonjs.com/#XFT6UU#7 :smiley:

Edit: https://playground.babylonjs.com/#XFT6UU#8 (had the attraction reversed)

4 Likes
4

@sebavan and @Gijs – thank you for your replies. @Gijs – that’s a perfect playground example. Thanks!

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