HomeMolecular BiologyBacterial Flagellar Motor: 2D Rotary Engine Model

Bacterial Flagellar Motor — 2D Rotary Engine Model

Interactive 2D model of the bacterial flagellar motor: a real torque-speed ODE spins the rotor up from rest to its steady-state speed against a viscous or fixed mechanical load, with the live operating point plotted on the torque-speed curve.

Molecular Biology2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-microbiology-biology ↗ Open standalone

This is the top-down, plotted-physics counterpart to the 3D flagellar motor model: instead of a rendered rotor you get a live rotational-dynamics simulation, its own torque-speed curve, and the operating point crawling toward equilibrium as the rotor spins up from rest. Set how many MotA/MotB stator units are engaged and how strong the proton-motive force is, choose whether the filament faces a viscous drag load or a fixed bead-assay load, and watch the rotor visibly accelerate until the torque it generates exactly balances the resisting load — the same force-balance condition that sets a real bacterium's swimming speed.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 2D torque-speed model of the bacterial flagellar motor: a real ODE (I·dω/dt = T(ω) − load) is integrated frame by frame so the rotor visibly spins up from rest to its steady-state speed, with the live operating point plotted where the motor's torque-speed curve crosses a viscous or fixed bead-assay load line.

bacteriaflagellar motorproton motive forcetorque-speed curvemolecular machinechemotaxisrotor dynamicsODE simulation

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

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