Tumble

Tumble is a tool for simulating the rotational motion of a rigid body using user-specified parameters. The user creates a database of rigid body models based on moments of inertia and specifies initial conditions for each. The orientation is represented as a quaternion and the angular velocity is expressed in radians per second. The user also specifies torque functions that can be applied to each rigid body during the simulation. These can be expressed in terms of time, angular velocity components, random numbers, and/or constants.

Finally, the user matches up a rigid body model with a torque function and runs the simulation. The program draws a cube approximating the shape of the rigid body based on the given moments of inertia and uses it to visualize the motion. During the simulation, a panel displays all the state information as well as a button that allows the user to pause and resume the simulation.