NetLogo Models Library:
3D/Sample Models

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Note: If you download the NetLogo application, every model in the Models Library is included.

WHAT IS IT?

This is a 3D version of the Mousetraps model. Imagine a gymnasium full of mousetraps. On each mousetrap is a ping pong ball. Now throw a single ping pong ball into the middle of the room. The ball lands on a trap, the trap triggers, and a second ball flies into the air. The first ball also bounces into the air again, so now there are two balls in the air. Each of those two balls triggers another trap, so there's four balls in the air. And so on...

This experiment is a well-known metaphor for nuclear fission. In nuclear fission, atoms of fissionable material such as uranium are the "mousetraps", and neutrons are the ping pong balls.

HOW IT WORKS

Light blue squares represent untriggered mousetraps. Red squares represent triggered mousetraps.

When a ball lands on a light blue square, the square turns red, a new ball appears, and both balls travel bounce.

HOW TO USE IT

Press SETUP to set up all the mousetraps and suspend a single ping pong ball over the center. Press GO to release the ping pong ball.

To vary the height to which the balls bounce, use the POWER slider.

RELATED MODELS

See the 2D version in the NetLogo models library.

CREDITS AND REFERENCES

This model is based on the "Mousetrap" demo included with the Swarm agent-based modeling toolkit (https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/swarm). See https://web.archive.org/web/20020719084215/http://acoma.santafe.edu/projects/swarm/examples/mousetrap/. Note that this model and that demo differ in various details.

HOW TO CITE

If you mention this model or the NetLogo software in a publication, we ask that you include the citations below.

For the model itself:

• Wilensky, U. (2002). NetLogo Mousetraps 3D model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Mousetraps3D. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Please cite the NetLogo software as:

• Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2002 Uri Wilensky.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

Commercial licenses are also available. To inquire about commercial licenses, please contact Uri Wilensky at uri@northwestern.edu.

This is a 3D version of the 2D model Mousetraps.

This model was created as part of the projects: PARTICIPATORY SIMULATIONS: NETWORK-BASED DESIGN FOR SYSTEMS LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS and/or INTEGRATED SIMULATION AND MODELING ENVIRONMENT. The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (REPP & ROLE programs) -- grant numbers REC #9814682 and REC-0126227.

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