Add sand one grain at a time and chaos organizes itself. When a pile gets too steep it topples, triggering avalanches of every size — the birth of self-organized criticality.
Abelian SandpileLive
self-organized criticality
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Grains drop on the center cell. When a cell reaches 4 grains it topples, sending one to each neighbor — which can trigger chain-reaction avalanches. The pile self-organizes into an intricate fractal at the critical slope.
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How it works
In the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile, each cell topples when it holds four or more grains, distributing one to each neighbor. Toppling can cascade into avalanches whose sizes follow a power law. The final stable configurations form strikingly intricate fractal patterns.
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