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gradient-descent

A ball rolling down a parabolic loss surface, settling at the minimum. Physics simulation with velocity and damping creates natural motion.

canvasclick to interact
t=0s

practical uses

  • 01.Explaining optimization fundamentals to beginners
  • 02.Illustrating why learning rate matters (ball momentum)
  • 03.Visualizing convergence behavior in training
  • 04.Demonstrating local vs global minima concepts

technical notes

Gradient calculated analytically (2x for parabola). Velocity updated with fixed damping factor. Auto-resets when settled to show multiple descent trajectories.