🧪 Jellyfish Bloom (2D): Bell-Pulse Jet Propulsion Physics
A side-on 2D companion to the 3D jellyfish bloom: each medusa's bell contracts and relaxes, and the rate of that contraction drives a real jet-propulsion thrust that fights drag, a light sinking bias and a wandering current.
Real jellyfish move by jet propulsion: the bell contracts, its cross-section shrinks, and the water it expels pushes the animal upward for a moment before the bell relaxes and the cycle repeats. This 2D companion turns that mechanic into a readable side view instead of an orbiting 3D scene — each medusa's bell radius follows R(t) = R₀·(0.82 + 0.28·sin(φ)), and whenever that radius is shrinking (bell contracting) the simulation derives a thrust force from the rate of change of the bell's cross-sectional area, exactly the physical mechanism real medusae rely on. That thrust fights a constant downward sink bias, a velocity-proportional drag term, and a slowly wandering horizontal current, so the population drifts and rises in a way that stays readable at a glance: turn up "Thrust strength" and the bloom visibly out-climbs its own sinking, turn up "Current strength" and the whole bloom leans sideways.
2D jet-propulsion model of a jellyfish bloom: bell-contraction rate drives thrust via dArea/dt, opposed by drag, a sink bias and an ambient current, with adjustable pulse frequency, population size and thrust/current strength.
2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install