🕸 Spider Web with Morning Dew (2D)

The 3D version of this scene renders an orb-weaver's web from a slowly orbiting camera; this 2D companion strips the view down to a flat diagram so the underlying mechanics are legible instead of merely pretty. Every spoke and every segment of the capture spiral carries its own load: dew drops condense onto the silk at a rate set by the humidity slider, each drop's mass growing by accretion the way real condensation does, and every thread sags under that load following the standard light-cable approximation sag ≈ w·L²/(8T), where w is the load per unit length and T is the silk's tension (the stiffness slider — turn it down and the whole web visibly droops). A drop stays put only while a surface-tension-scaled adhesion force can hold it against the component of gravity pulling it along the thread; once that balance tips, it slides with the same incline-and-friction kinematics as a block sliding down a ramp, accelerates toward the anchor, and drips off, incrementing the drip counter in the panel. Push the stickiness slider low or the humidity slider high and drops start sliding and dripping constantly; push tension low and the whole structure sags visibly even before any dew lands on it.