by David R Grigg, Rightword Enterprises
I wrote Gravitorium for fun, and to explore some ideas I had for science fiction stories. "What would happen if a black hole passed through the solar system?" "What would it be like to live on a planet with two suns?" I'm a long-time science fiction fan (I was actually chairman of the 43rd World Science Fiction Convention), and I enjoy playing with ideas.I loved the great "Dance of the Planets" solar system simulator, but it won't run on my latest computer, and it even if it did, it didn't give you much in the way of an ability to ask "What If?" questions.
So the prime purpose of Gravitorium is to let me and you play with ideas about gravity and gravitational systems. It's not intended to be a highly accurate solar system simulator, though at low speeds its accuracy is really pretty good, at least for modest periods of time (a hundred years or so). It is certainly good enough to get a good general impression of the likely course of events in a particular planetary system. And, best of all, it lets you "play universe creator". Throw in a few extra planets, add a black hole, set a comet plunging towards the Earth! Or create an entirely new solar system from scratch.
Educators should find it a very useful tool for teaching physics and astronomy.
So, have fun.
Gravitorium is shareware, and you are asked to pay a modest license fee for continued use (special deals are available for educational institutions, please contact us).
Please report any bugs to us at . And please let us know if you want us to make any changes, or have suggestions for improving the program.
-- David R. Grigg