Particle Collision Simulation GUI

This project implements a graphical particle collision simulation using Python, Tkinter, and Matplotlib. The simulation models hard-circle molecular dynamics, where particles move within a bounded square domain, interact through elastic collisions, and update their positions and velocities over time.

The user can interact with the simulation through a GUI, specifying the number of particles and observing their dynamic behavior in real-time.

Features

• Simulates particles moving in a 2D square domain.

• Handles particle-particle collisions with conservation of energy and momentum.

• Bounces particles off the walls elastically.

• Real-time rendering of the particle motion using Matplotlib.

• User-friendly GUI to configure the number of particles and restart the simulation.

• Multi-threaded design to ensure the GUI remains responsive during long computations.

Run

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/westoleaboat/particle-simulation-gui.git
cd particle-simulation-gui

2. Create venv

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

3. Install requirements

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the simulation

python collision.py

Multi-Threading for Responsiveness

The simulation uses a separate thread to perform computations while ensuring GUI updates are thread-safe. A helper function thread_safe_gui_update is provided to schedule updates to Tkinter widgets from non-GUI threads.

GUI Components

• Input Form: Allows the user to specify the number of particles.

• Simulation Canvas: Displays the particle simulation in real-time.

• Generate Button: Regenerates the simulation with the updated number of particles.

Future Enhancements

• Add support for user-defined particle radii and velocities.

• Enable saving simulations as video files.

• Include additional interaction forces (e.g., gravitational or electrostatic).