Pointless Swirley Fun for a Sunday Afternoon

March 8, 2020 11:46 AM

Here's an in-browser fluid dynamics emulator that you can click and drag on to watch beautiful fluid dynamics patterns. Just enough of a toy to distract you when you need a brief distraction.
posted by hippybear (20 comments total)

My phone is currently experiencing a cat 5 hurricane.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:50 AM on March 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

This is very *whhhhoooaaaa duuuuuude* for me. I could space out to this endlessly
posted by wellifyouinsist at 11:54 AM on March 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have a Magic Fluids app on my phone that does this; it's useful if you need to briefly entertain a small child, or a stoner. Or a stoner child.
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 11:56 AM on March 8, 2020 [10 favorites]

galaxys, man
posted by atomicmedia at 12:25 PM on March 8, 2020

Fun. Soothing. Soothing fun.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2020

Fluid Simulation Pong
(a Google HTML5 experiment, so it runs in the browser)
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

I am usually unimpressed by screen-based stim toys but whoa dude.
posted by brook horse at 12:38 PM on March 8, 2020

Did you ever really look at your phone?
posted by chavenet at 1:19 PM on March 8, 2020 [6 favorites]

Previously, but the original link now goes somewhere different.

My computer can run this a lot more smoothly than it could back then though.
posted by Foosnark at 2:29 PM on March 8, 2020

Back in the day I did a fair amount of LSD and would watch the "ant races" on the tv for hours. I'm glad I didn't have a computer back then.

And by ant races I mean the static channels would go to at 1AM when broadcasting hours ended. I'm also glad I was poor enough to not be able to afford cable tv. Thanks Sbarros.
posted by johnpowell at 6:17 PM on March 8, 2020 [5 favorites]

Somehow I made a soliton.
posted by hypnogogue at 11:14 PM on March 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's good fun setting up counter-rotating vortices and watch them sort of bounce off each other. What's more amazing to an old fogey like me is that it runs will on a couple of year old, decidedly mid-range at the time, phone. I always appreciate the reinforcement of the message that modern flagships don't have the practical advantages in daily use they did 5-10 years ago.
posted by wierdo at 1:20 AM on March 9, 2020

*stares at screen, weedless
posted by zardoz at 2:55 AM on March 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

Solver Iterations to 1 RULES. Productivity iterations to zero RULES
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:20 AM on March 9, 2020

It's particularly easy to use this to draw dicks. I'm not sure what the metaphysical ramifications of that are.
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 8:18 AM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

I miss staring at hypnotic screensavers instead of working.
posted by Eleven at 9:57 AM on March 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

[this is good]
posted by Busithoth at 3:46 PM on March 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

I accidentally left it running overnight in an open browser tab, and the "particles" got a lot sparser, like they had leaked out the bottom of the page or something. You could still get some motion going, but it was a lot less swirly.

That is all.
posted by Umami Dearest at 2:16 AM on March 10, 2020

Ummagumma.
posted by TigerMoth at 3:58 PM on March 10, 2020

My favorite nobody's mentioned yet: right-click anywhere on the screen, then left click somewhere else. Instant Holdo Maneuver.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:44 PM on March 17, 2020