Can A.I. Make Physics Diagrams? Let’s Find Out.

Orbital Physics Images: One was created by Rhett Allain, the other two were from ChatGPT and Gemini (I’m not saying which is which).

I’m not sure if you already know this, but I often create physics diagrams for blog posts and stuff. Sometimes I even create stuff for topics that I have already blogged about — so why recreate the wheel, right? Oh, but what about AI (Large Language Models)? Could I get AI to just make the diagram for me?

Before getting to the AI-images, let’s go over the important physics things you would want in a diagram for the physics of orbital motion.

Intro to Orbital Mechanics

Why would you even want a diagram? Of course it’s possible to just talk about the physics of a circular orbit with words — but I feel like a diagram really adds an extra dimension to the explanation. So, if you wanted to include some type of visual aid, it should demonstrate the following (very important concepts).

• There is a gravitational force between the orbiting object and the Earth. This force is an attractive force such that it pulls the spacecraft towards the center of the Earth. If you want, you could include the equation for the force that shows the magnitude decreases with the square of the distance between the objects (from the center of the Earth).
• For an object moving in a circle with a constant speed, it has an acceleration that depends on both the speed and the…