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🌊 Ripple Pond (2D)

A 2D top-down heightfield of a pond: circular ripples spawn from point sources and superpose exactly like the 3D version's wave equation, with live wave-speed, damping, wavelength and amplitude controls and click-to-drop interaction.

Physics & Mechanics2DEasy60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

Details

CategoryPhysics & Mechanics

RenderingCanvas 2D

DifficultyEasy

Target FPS60

ControlsClick or tap the pond to drop a ripple; a rain toggle turns automatic random ripples on or off and a reset button clears the pond. Four sliders control wave speed (10-70), damping/decay rate (0.15-1.5), wavelength (6-40) and amplitude (0.15-1.2), each affecting the live wave equation.

wave superpositionripple propagationinterferenceheightfield2d

📖 Read the articleThe maths behind Ripple Pond

Related simulations

Ripple InterferenceExplore how ripples interact and interfere with each other.

Ripple PondThe 3D original — circles of ripples spreading across a calm pond.

Rising Bubble in Viscous FluidWatch a bubble rise through a viscous fluid. ⊞ All 2700 in Physics & Mechanics →

This 2D companion strips the ripple pond down to the wave equation itself, viewed from directly overhead: each drop spawns a circular wavefront whose height at every point is the sum of a decaying sine envelope, and where wavefronts overlap their heights simply add — crest-on-crest brightens, crest-on-trough cancels toward flat water. Click the pond to add your own ripples on top of the automatic rainfall, or turn rain off and drop them one at a time to watch clean interference patterns form.

⚙ Under the hood

A grid-based heightfield sums circular decaying-sine wavefronts from every active ripple and paints the result as brightness — crest bright, trough dark — with live wave-speed, damping, wavelength and amplitude controls.

wave superpositionripple propagationinterferenceheightfield2d

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