Elastic Fireballs II

By senior year I was short a credit in math class, and I was going through a tough time outside of school too. I went to an alternative school where we were on a first-name basis with the staff, and it felt more personal there. They were super understanding, and some of the best people I knew during my formative years.

The principal, Pam, knew I did some coding outside of school and made me a deal: build some physics simulations to demonstrate my knowledge of math and coding, and if my math teacher Ron — a retired software engineer — okayed them, I'd get the credit I needed to graduate.

This was probably the best of the three simulations I made for that deal. The first Elastic Fireballs dragged a plain line behind each ball; three years later, the trail finally earned the name. Each segment is drawn with its own alpha and thickness, so it tapers and fades like fire, with a blur filter softening the whole thing.

The rewind feature came from pure curiosity. I was really into Prince of Persia back then, and I wanted to see what it would look like if I could reverse time myself — so the simulation remembers where the balls have been, and holding backspace runs it backwards. Watching the balls retrace the same paths over and over got me thinking about determinism, and whether everything in the universe might be predetermined too.

Pam and Ron were super impressed with it, and it landed me a high school diploma. So that's pretty cool.