[Physics] According to the inverse square law, is the intensity at the source always infinity

thermodynamics

I'm trying to design a script for a Unity game that can accurately (give or take) simulate heat based on distance from a source. Using the inverse square law seems to be a way I can do this, but setting distance to zero always seems to set intensity to infinity. Am I misunderstanding something about the inverse square law?

Best Answer

This is just an artefact from assuming your heat source is infinitesimal in size. Also, more generally, physics tends to break down in the limit $r\to 0$.

So, in many cases, you have the luxury of doing 'something else' in the vicinity of $r=0$. For example, it is common in various simulation settings (n-body, free energy perturbation, etc) to use so-called soft-core potentials. These are potentials that are modified so that the singularities disappear.

For a $1/r^n$ potential, it's common to replace it with something of the form $$ \frac{1}{(1+r^{ns})^{1/s}} $$ Here is a plot for $n=2,s=3$.

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