Calculation Speed

• One of the key issues in this module are the tradeoffs between accuracy and speed of calculation.
• Approximations are usually much faster to calculate.
• If they are close enough, they should be used instead of a more accurate more complex calculation.
• The influence of the sun's gravity on the flight of a ball is an example.
• Another example might be a task where the influence of a dozen bodies is significant. However, the closest three account for 99% of the behaviour. Here you do 3x12 calcs instead of 11x12 calcs. This scales up with say 100 or a 1000 bodies.
• You can also cache results away so that you don't have to do the calculation. (This is a memory vs. speed trade off.)