432 · Three-Body
Music generated by gravity — a chaotic many-body orbit that never repeats and never resolves.
A real Newtonian gravity simulation. Close approaches swell, slingshots whoosh, and every body drones with its speed. Sound on — find a quiet space.
design notes
Velocity-Verlet integration of softened Newtonian gravity, substepped for stability. The three-body problem is deterministic but non-repeating — Poincaré's sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
Sound is sonified physics: per-body drones track speed (inharmonic, never a scale); close approaches swell with a Doppler-like glide; fast passes whoosh. Total kinetic energy opens a master brightness filter, so the piece breathes with the chaos.
Refs: three-body problem; Poincaré; figure-8 choreography (Chenciner & Montgomery, 2000).