Falling Sand experiment: ice, heat and lava

What will you compare?

Falling Sand 3 lets you explore material changes by drawing particles. In this ten-minute experiment, compare ice alone with ice next to a heat source. Then try a separate lava-and-water scene.

Open Falling Sand 3. Use the material tooltips to find Wall, Ice, Torch, Water and Lava. These instructions refer to the advanced version; the classic falling sand game has a smaller palette.

Build the first scene

1. Save a snapshot if you want to keep your current world, then clear the canvas.
2. Pause the simulation and choose a small brush.
3. Draw a shallow U-shaped bowl using Wall. Leave enough space inside to see the particles move.
4. Add a small patch of Ice near the bottom, keeping room for a heat source beside it.
5. Save this setup with Save snapshot. There is one local snapshot slot, so saving replaces the earlier snapshot. Download an earlier state first if you need both.

Compare ice with and without heat

Resume and observe the ice without adding anything. Then restore your setup with Continue snapshot, pause, and paint a little Torch directly beside the ice. Keep the cells adjacent: a distant heat source may not trigger a change.

Resume and look for water forming where ice was placed. Use Pause and Step to inspect successive updates. Melting is probabilistic, so it may take several steps; this is not a temperature measurement or a fixed melting time.

Capture an image before and after. Note what you changed, where the torch was, and whether liquid spread into the bowl. If nothing happens, check that the simulation is running and the torch is close enough.

Try lava and water separately

Clear the scene after saving any result you want to keep. Pause, build another small wall bowl and add a shallow pool of Water. Add a small amount of Lava next to it, then resume.

Watch the contact area. In this game, lava near water can turn into solid wall material and produce steam. The outcome depends on particle contact and random updates; do not expect every particle to change at once. Use a few particles first so the reaction is easy to follow.

What this experiment shows

You are comparing local rules in a particle sandbox. The game does not provide calibrated temperatures, realistic reaction rates or conservation measurements. Its value here is making a prediction, changing one condition and checking the visible result.

For another trial, change the amount of water while keeping the bowl and lava placement similar. Download image preserves a picture; Download state preserves a restorable scene. They serve different purposes when recording your experiments.