4 ms·
In real life, the three colliding bodies would convert their kinetic energy into heat and combine into a very hot body. Sort of how we think the moon was create
by lutusp 12y ago
In real life, the three colliding bodies would convert their kinetic energy into heat and combine into a very hot body. Sort of how we think the moon was created, from a Mars-sized body colliding with Earth long ago.
But in a numerical simulation, usually what happens is that three bodies on a collision source approach one another but, because of the limitations of numerical differential equation solving, suddenly fly away from each other in a rather non-physical way, and with more energy than they had to begin with.
The tl;dr: most of the funny effects in a simulator arise from the limitations of numerical simulation methods, and many of those aren't representative of real physics.