[ODE] mass ratio idea

[Megan Fox]

Wouldn't a similar alternative (albeit an incorrect physically one,
possibly) be to force both masses down to a specific ratio when a
collision beyond X max ratio is detected?

That is... a train car (mass 1000) hits a baseball (mass 0.1).  This
is above the maximum 100:1 ratio, at which point the :1 side is
reaching insignificant contribution, so as far as the collision is
concerned, you're now dealing with a collision of mass 100 vs mass 1
(or mass 10 vs mass 1, or mass 1000 vs mass 1... whatever the desired
ratio is, maybe make it app-settable).

Mind, I have no grounding in anything beyond basic calc3/college
physics, but it seems as if masses beyond a certain ratio would have
nearly the same result as masses of that ratio - is the difference
between a 10,000:1 and 1000:1 really that different?  Shouldn't sig
figs kick in somewhere around this point, making the lesser mass
effectively non-existent, or at least not effectively different from
1000:1?

(that is - not treat either body as static, just temporarily decide
the masses of the two active bodies are less than they actually are,
once they're past a certain ratio)

-Megan


> Seems nice, but I think there may be a problem if both bodies are moving.
> If one of them is treated as static, the relative velocity at the contact
> point will be calculated incorrectly, possibly resulting with non-physical
> behavior.
> 
> (but that's my guess - haven't tried it)