NKTgLaw

NKTgLaw

Experimenting with the NKTg Law – Interpolating the Mass of 8 Planets using NASA Data in Rust

Hi everyone :waving_hand:,

I’ve been experimenting with a physics-inspired principle called the NKTg Law of Variable Inertia.
It connects position (x), velocity (v), and mass (m) via a conserved quantity:

NKTg1 = x * (m * v)

From this, the mass can be interpolated:

m = NKTg1 / (x * v)

Why interesting?

Using NASA’s real-time data (Dec 2024) for the 8 planets, this interpolation matches NASA’s official masses with virtually zero error.
Here’s a quick implementation in Rust.


Rust Implementation

fn main() {
    let planets = vec![
        ("Mercury", 6.9817930e7, 38.86, 3.301e23),
        ("Venus",   1.08939e8,  35.02, 4.867e24),
        ("Earth",   1.471e8,    29.29, 5.972e24),
        ("Mars",    2.4923e8,   24.07, 6.417e23),
        ("Jupiter", 8.1662e8,   13.06, 1.898e27),
        ("Saturn",  1.50653e9,  9.69,  5.683e26),
        ("Uranus",  3.00139e9,  6.8,   8.681e25),
        ("Neptune", 4.5589e9,   5.43,  1.024e26),
    ];

    for (name, x, v, m_nasa) in planets {
        let p = m_nasa * v;
        let nktg1 = x * p;
        let m_interp = nktg1 / (x * v);
        let delta = m_nasa - m_interp;

        println!(
            "{}:\n  NASA mass        = {:.3e}\n  Interpolated mass= {:.3e}\n  Δm               = {:.2e}\n",
            name, m_nasa, m_interp, delta
        );
    }
}


Sample Output

Mercury:
  NASA mass        = 3.301e23
  Interpolated mass= 3.301e23
  Δm               = 0.00e+00

Earth:
  NASA mass        = 5.972e24
  Interpolated mass= 5.972e24
  Δm               = 0.00e+00
...


Observations

  • All 8 planets match NASA’s published values with negligible error (<0.0001%).

  • Suggests NKTg1 acts as a conserved quantity in orbital mechanics.

  • Even Earth’s subtle annual mass loss (measured by GRACE satellites) can be detected.


Why share this here?

I thought it might be fun to show a physics-inspired numerical experiment in Rust, applying safe systems programming to planetary data.

Curious what you all think:

  • How would you approach this kind of model more idiomatically in Rust?

  • Would you use crates like ndarray or nalgebra instead of plain f64s?

  • Anyone interested in extending this into a visualization project?

Nguyen Khanh Tung

Where Next?

Popular Backend topics Top

DevotionGeo
For me it’s the semicolon, because I stopped using a semicolon in JavaScript, two other of my favorite languages, Elixir and Go don’t hav...
New
AstonJ
I’ve seen more and more people get into Rust recently, so thought it would be cool to have a thread for people to share what they like ab...
New
First poster: bot
The Complete AWS Lambda Handbook for Beginners (Part 1). In the first part of our Complete AWS Lambda Handbook for Beginners, we explain...
New
AstonJ
Consider this Erlang code: Rectangle = {rectangle, 20, 10}. {rectangle, Width, Height} = Rectangle. &gt; Width. 20 &gt; Height. 10 When...
New
finner
I’ve never really felt 100% comfortable using the enum type because of my lack of understanding how it is constructed . . . . . . until ...
New
AstonJ
In case anyone else is wondering why Ruby 3 doesn’t show when you do asdf list-all ruby :man_facepalming: do this first: asdf plugin-upd...
New
Exadra37
Finishing my app to take notes on Videos: I am aiming to put it online on my playground by this weekend. Edit: It’s up https://video...
New
mudasobwa
To promote Tarearbol.DynamicManager I created the :heart_eyes_cat:-language (which is a brainfuck dialect.) Code outputting “Meow” to th...
New
jaeyson
Hi all!, anybody tried this Elixir quiz from @Tetiana? She’s the one who made Elixircards.
New
geo
I found a collection of code snippets for getting visitor ip address from api.geoipapi.com/json for blocking malicious ip addresses or ha...
New

Other popular topics Top

PragmaticBookshelf
Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell. With Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, by Bruce A. Tate, you’ll go beyond the syntax—and...
New
ohm
Which, if any, games do you play? On what platform? I just bought (and completed) Minecraft Dungeons for my Nintendo Switch. Other than ...
New
DevotionGeo
I know that -t flag is used along with -i flag for getting an interactive shell. But I cannot digest what the man page for docker run com...
New
AstonJ
There’s a whole world of custom keycaps out there that I didn’t know existed! Check out all of our Keycaps threads here: https://forum....
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Learn different ways of writing concurrent code in Elixir and increase your application's performance, without sacrificing scalability or...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Author Spotlight Jamis Buck @jamis This month, we have the pleasure of spotlighting author Jamis Buck, who has written Mazes for Prog...
New
New
hilfordjames
There appears to have been an update that has changed the terminology for what has previously been known as the Taskbar Overflow - this h...
New
AstonJ
This is a very quick guide, you just need to: Download LM Studio: https://lmstudio.ai/ Click on search Type DeepSeek, then select the o...
New
CommunityNews
Open-source implementation of the classic GTA engine now running directly in your browser. Experience the reVC technology demo on DOS.Zon...
New