Click to drop a pendulum. Drag magnets to reshape the fractal.

Magnetic Pendulum

Fractal Basin Explorer
Click to drop a pendulum
Presets
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Presets configure the number of magnets and physics parameters to produce different fractal basin patterns. Low damping creates more complex, chaotic boundaries.
Magnets
Physics
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Fractal basins of attraction: each color shows which magnet a pendulum released from that point will eventually reach. The boundaries between basins are fractal — infinitely complex at every scale.

The pendulum swings above magnets on a flat plane, pulled by gravity toward center and by each magnet below. Damping slowly removes energy until the pendulum settles at one magnet. Motter & Lai (2002) "Dissipative chaotic scattering"; also see Peitgen, Jurgens & Saupe (2004) "Chaos and Fractals"
0.10
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Friction / energy loss. Low damping means the pendulum swings longer before settling, producing more complex fractal boundaries. High damping = simpler, smoother basins.
0.50
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Restoring force toward center. Simulates the pendulum's tendency to hang straight down. Higher gravity = pendulum stays closer to center, basins become more radially symmetric.
1.0
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Magnet pull strength. How strongly each magnet attracts the pendulum. Higher values make basins larger and more defined; lower values make the fractal boundary regions wider.
0.30
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Pendulum height above magnets. The vertical distance between the swinging bob and the magnet plane. Lower = magnets have sharper, more localized pull. Higher = gentler, broader attraction.
View
3.0
3000
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Simulation steps per pixel. More iterations = more accurate basin boundaries but slower rendering. Increase if you see noisy/grainy regions.
Palette