math and galaxys
I'm working on a project where I am interested in generating a spiral galaxy in two dimensions, but making very slow progress so far. Basically, I need to develop a method of taking information such as:
How many stars
How many arms
Minimum distance stars can be apart
Maximum distance stars can be apart
Density (related to the previous two)
and turning it into an array of (x, y) values that, if graphically represented, take the shape of a classical spiral galaxy. The number of stars would be anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 or so -- plenty for realistic results, I'd say. Has anyone seen anything like this out on the web? I have some ideas on how to get started, but my math (this sort of math, anyway) is pretty rusty and I'd hate to spend a lot of time re-solving this problem.
