AN INTERACTIVE LIGHT PLAYGROUND
Kinetic Particle Flow
Run a ready-made circuit, then change its tools.
Run the example, or open Change the tools to experiment.
What happened?
Try this:
Display & sound
A little help, when you need it
How to experiment & keyboard controls
Choose any example and press Run the light. Then select a placed tool to rotate, move, or remove it. Open Change the tools to add something new. Sources, receivers, and barriers stay fixed; Clear tools gives you space to build your own route. Undo reverses an edit, including a reset.
Keyboard: use arrows to choose a square, Enter or Space to place or select, R / Shift+R to rotate, Shift+arrows to move a selected piece, Delete to remove, and Escape to deselect. Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes; Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z redoes.
What does each tool do?
◉ Lens tightens a spreading beam inside its field. Align its long axis with the stream.
╱ Mirror reflects all colors. Angling a mirror by 45° turns a horizontal stream by 90°.
⋮ Color gate passes one chosen color and reflects the rest. Rotate it to sort a mixed beam.
⊗ Absorber stops every particle it touches.
Red particles are circles, green particles are diamonds, and blue particles are squares. Sources and receivers also carry letter labels.
What do the results mean?
Delivery is the percentage of emitted particles of a receiver's color that reached it. Purity is the percentage of arriving particles that match its color. These are observations to compare, not a pass or fail. Every run uses the same batch, so changing playback speed does not change the result.
This playground uses invented optical rules to make routing easy to explore. It is not a scientific model of photons.
Does Kinetic Particle Flow save my changes?
Your edits and last selected example are saved in this browser when local storage is available. Clearing browser data removes them. A running experiment restarts when you reload. Reset example restores its original tools.
Is Kinetic Particle Flow free?
Yes. All 12 editable examples are free, with no account or download. Use a modern desktop or mobile browser with JavaScript enabled.