[vos-d] thought problem 1: physics

[Ken Taylor]

chris wrote:
> On 2/2/07, Peter Amstutz <tetron at interreality.org> wrote:
> > Well, I assume this is a trick question.  Obviously it *should* do the
> > same thing, but because of tiny changes in floating point precision,
> > that isn't guaranteed, and the further you go the less likely it is to
> > produce the same results.  Do I get a cookie?
>
> yup - even tho it is only 10m the difference can be surprisingly large
> and obvious just from looking at image: out of proportion to the
> difference in resolution at 10m (which is about 1.6 x 10^-15). See
> attached image.

Dr Ian Malcom? Is that you? ;)

> yeah - but my tests of the position sensitivity are quite scary for
> anything u want
> to be accurate or repeatable and for mission critical stuff.

But would this kind of experiment be reproducable in the real world, even
with super-precision equipment? I wouldn't expect to be able to drop a block
and have it do the same thing every time. I guess a more pertinent question
is -- are there things which *are* repeatable in the real world but would
fail due to this kind of position sensitivity in simulation?

-Ken