Hunter-Prey Simulation

This simulation represents how an ecosystem can survive, even when only following a few simple rules. For most conditions, the ecosystem (simulation) will fail, and everything will die out. However, if the conditions are right the system will sustain itself.

Such a fine line between order and chaos in a system is seen everywhere from plants to animals, and even ourselves and the planet itself. If the habitat is slightly different, the plants and animals will begin to die out. If the planet is a bit closer to the sun, we wouldn't exist here.

That balance is what this simulation represents, in a cartoonish human-versus-zombie world.

How to Use This Simulation

• Move the sliders to change the starting conditions of the simulation.
• The speed sliders determine how fast the humans and zombies move.
• The starting number sliders determine how many humans and zombies are there at the start of the simulation.
• The repopulation slider determines how likely the humans are to create more humans everyinterval.
• The starvation slider determines how fast the health of humans and zombies decreases every interval.
• The infection checkbox determines if a human becomes a zombie when attacked by a zombie.

Things to Try

1. Try to make the humans win with infection on.
2. Try to make the zombies win with infection off.
3. Try to balance the humans with the zombies so that neither one disappears completely (is there more than one way to do this?)
4. Set the human starting population to 2 and the zombie starting population to 20. What happens?
5. Set both populations back to 10. Turn on the infection mode. What happens?
6. Set the human speed to 6 and the zombie speed to 3. What happens?
7. Set the starvation rate to 10, the human speed to 4, and the zombie speed to 6. What happens?
8. Set the starvation rate to 2 and the zombie speed to 3. What happens?

Things to Notice

• Changing any one setting can balance or unbalance the simulation.
• Lower human reproduction rates affect the zombies as well.
• Higher starvation rates can be offset with faster speeds and reproduction.
• When the simulation is balanced, the groups tend to group together after awhile. Notice that this happens without the rules from the flocking simulation.

For Fun

• Set the speeds both to 10.
• Set starvation rate to 20.
• Set populations to 1 and starvation to 1.

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