The Underscore Archives

Hi Tom,

I think you may want some game physics rather than real physics by the
sound of it (i.e. faked ones that look right but are quick to
calculate by iterative changes through a time frame and cartesian
coordinates).

Otherwise Boas taught me everything I have forgotten about such things:

M.L.Boas, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences

http://snipurl.com/13t2h

In my experience of applying physics to widgets, games flash etc is to
understand the concepts, then screw the actual physics and make
something that just feels right and runs fast. Usually give your self
a lot of parameters and tweak them until it all looks lovely.

If I were you I would just treat the two objects like they were
coliding spheres of different masses (all though your collision
detection would be based on actual shapes) that would give you
trajectories - then distribute a bit of the resulting velocity of the
large object into rotational momentum depending on the angle to the
center of mass.

-Stu