http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/theodric/wheel.html
The Wheel of Chaos This Java applet was inspired by an exhibit at the Franklin Institute museum in Philadelphia. The exhibit consists of a large, free- spinning wheel, about 10 feet in diameter, with about a dozen buckets attached around the edge of the wheel. Each bucket has a hole in the bottom, so any water in the bucket leaks out at a constant rate. There is a spigot at the top of the wheel which will pour water into a bucket if it is positioned at the top of the wheel. As the top bucket fills, it becomes heavy and drops toward the bottom of the wheel, causing the wheel to turn. As the wheel turns, the other buckets rotate around and are filled with water as they pass under the spigot. As water drains out of each bucket, it may drain into another bucket directly underneath it. The sign on the exhibit states that the world's most powerfull supercomputers are unable to calculate the position of the wheel five minutes into the future due to the chaotic nature of the system. In this example, each bucket is represented by a colored square. The level of the water in each bucket is also shown for each bucket. The light blue line down the center indicate the stream of water coming out the the spigot at the top. The colored line under each bucket represents the water draining out of the hole. Note that when a bucket is empty, it no longer drains water. Also note that in this model, the water falls from each bucket at an infinite speed. In the real exhibit, the water fell at a slower rate. --- End forwarded message --- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
