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Ferrofluid Rosensweig Spikes (2D)

Interactive 2D top-down ferrofluid simulator: drag a magnet under a dish of ferrofluid and watch a ring of Rosensweig-instability spikes erupt once the applied field crosses the real critical-field threshold, with live readouts computed from capillary length, surface tension and density.

Materials Science2DEasy60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This is the 2D top-down counterpart to the 3D ferrofluid dish: a canvas view of the same Rosensweig (normal-field) instability, where a ring of sharp fluid spikes erupts around a magnet once the applied field crosses a real critical-field threshold. Instead of a rendered 3D mesh, the surface height is computed on a grid and drawn as a glowing height map with bright spike tips, driven by the same physics — a critical field H_c derived from density, gravity and surface tension, and a spike spacing set by the capillary wavelength. Drag the magnet to relocate the instability, raise the field past H_c to watch the spike crown erupt, and adjust surface tension to see the threshold and spike spacing shift together exactly as real ferrofluid physics predicts.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D top-down ferrofluid simulator where dragging a magnet under the dish and raising the field past a real critical-field threshold erupts a ring of Rosensweig-instability spikes, with live readouts computed from density, surface tension and capillary length.

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install