leafpile3D

Makes a falling pile of random leaves in a box. Incorporate a drag law and compare with nature! Or save a still to hang on your wall!
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Updated 31 Aug 2020

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Editor's Note: This file was selected as MATLAB Central Pick of the Week

This is a 3D extension of leafpile.m and includes to ability to add physics (currently the HW assignment for my Differential Equations students). As is, the code just lets gravity act alone on the leaves.

This code takes advantage of Hamid Naderi Yeganeh's wonderful parametric curves that describe oak and maple leaf shapes [1] and MATLAB's built-in Autumn colormap.

After using some randomization on the colors chosen within the colormap, the leaf coordinates, roll, pitch, and yaw, we have ourrselves a nice little leaf pile generator! Why wait until Mid October when you can experience those beautiful few weeks all year round within the comfort of your MATLAB console?

This code will be updated with some realistic drag laws after my students' HW assignment is due. I'd also like to eventually incorporate some slider controls like Sean de Wolski did for the 2D leafpile code last year.

[1] Hamid Naderi Yeganeh, Scientific American, March 16 2017, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/how-to-draw-with-math/

Cite As

Nathaniel Barlow (2024). leafpile3D (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/79727-leafpile3d), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2020a
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
Acknowledgements

Inspired: leafpile3D -- minor mods

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Version Published Release Notes
1.0.1

Changed z so that it is oriented positive down, to correspond with force balances that would lead to the differential equation solution (to be replaced by better drag models by users) on line 39.

1.0.0