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I thought I’d try using Flickr to upload my photos. Boy was that fast and easy. However, I didn’t want to take the time to figure out how to get both photos in the same blog entry, so please look at the next two entries.

At first, the whole concept of recreating something that happens in nature within three minutes on the computer blew my mind. How cool is that – to replicate ants foraging for food and inadvertently leading others to substance by leaving a chemical as it moves. Wow! I was particularly interested in adjusting the population size and evaporation rate. My hypothesis was that a larger colony of ants with a slower rate of chemical evaporation would be more efficient than a smaller colony with a quicker rate of evaporation. Doesn’t sound like rocket science, does it? However, an interesting thing happened. When the rate of evaporation was set at a very low level, the ants were not able to achieve optimal efficiency because they were following a chemical to a food source that was no longer there. Ah ha! A Sherlock Holmes moment.

It was interesting to simulate birds flocking as well. The most interesting setup was with a small population (34) and great vision (6.5 patches) and a good opportunity to turn (7.75 degrees). I was amazed at how quickly the birds began flocking!