Skip to content

Learning · physics simulator

Interactive 3D three-body problem simulator

Free browser simulator for watching 3D three-body orbits, with presets and many settings people find fun. Critics note energy isn't conserved and orbits often fly apart.

Summarized from 27 comments.

Free browser simulator for watching 3D three-body orbits, with presets and many settings people find fun. Critics note energy isn't conserved and orbits often fly apart.

recommend
20
criticize
5
months recommended
3 of 13

Why people love it

  • Fun to play with · 3

    Simple to use, surprisingly solid, and just a pleasure to poke around with.

    Nov 2025 · comment

    it is a really fun sim, I think I will let my kid play with it

    Nov 2025 · comment

    I spent a long time playing with the sim. Nice work.

    Nov 2025 · comment
  • Beautiful and mesmerizing to watch · 3

    So beautiful, I once had a similar idea, and I'm glad to see someone bring it to life

    Nov 2025 · comment

    the default simulation played out beautifully on-load

    Dec 2025 · comment

    some are mesmerizing to watch

    Nov 2025 · comment
  • 3D presets are standouts · 2

    The 3D presets are the standout here, especially the ones that move in and out of the orbital plane.

    Nov 2025 · comment

    Love the presets! The Broucke one is my favourite

    Dec 2025 · comment
  • Many adjustable settings and mass inputs · 2

    Love this. It's not obvious from the UI but you can enter small mass changes and watch things slowly fall apart.

    Dec 2025 · comment

    Color me impressed! I love the ammount of settings you can play with.

    Nov 2025 · comment

What people warn about

What hackers pick instead

Every quote

The 25 most detailed of 27 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. Love this. It's not obvious from the UI but you can enter small mass changes and watch things slowly fall apart.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “N-Body Simulator – Interactive 3 Body Problem and Gravitational Physics”

  2. The 3D presets are the standout here, especially the ones that move in and out of the orbital plane.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  3. So beautiful, I once had a similar idea, and I'm glad to see someone bring it to life

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  4. Simple to use, surprisingly solid, and just a pleasure to poke around with.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  5. Color me impressed! I love the ammount of settings you can play with.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  6. it is a really fun sim, I think I will let my kid play with it

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  7. the default simulation played out beautifully on-load

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “N-Body Simulator – Interactive 3 Body Problem and Gravitational Physics”

  8. I spent a long time playing with the sim. Nice work.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  9. Love the presets! The Broucke one is my favourite

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “N-Body Simulator – Interactive 3 Body Problem and Gravitational Physics”

  10. some are mesmerizing to watch

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  11. Random3D seems to always have all the stars heading off to infinity.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Show HN: I built an interactive 3D three-body problem simulator in the browser”

  12. all three objects were suddenly ejected with a very high velocity.

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  13. they yeet out of existence far far away

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Show HN: I built an interactive 3D three-body problem simulator in the browser”

  14. It's one of those things that seems so obvious and yet actually seeing it is a really important step in understanding.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  15. Clearly, no conservation of energy here (at least when the bodies are arbitrarily close to each other).

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “N-Body Simulator – Interactive 3 Body Problem and Gravitational Physics”

  16. The grid lines look pretty good in 3D but the orbits themselves aren't as sharp

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  17. I love the animation. Unfortunately can't see it fully

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Show HN: I built an interactive 3D three-body problem simulator in the browser”

  18. this looks really nice on a 240 Hz display

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “N-Body Simulator – Interactive 3 Body Problem and Gravitational Physics”

  19. Anyway, it's a nice online resource.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  20. nice to be able to export json too

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Show HN: I built an interactive 3D three-body problem simulator in the browser”

  21. This is cool thanks for sharing.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  22. There is also this fun website

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  23. This is amazing! Nicely done!

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Browser-based interactive 3D Three-Body problem simulator”

  24. Seems like there is no way to actually make those collide with each other.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “N-Body Simulator – Interactive 3 Body Problem and Gravitational Physics”

  25. The ui covers more than half my screen on mobile browser

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Show HN: I built an interactive 3D three-body problem simulator in the browser”

Counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, Nov 2025 to Nov 2026. How we count · Report a mistake