Abelian sandpile

Drop grains one at a time. When a cell reaches four it topples, sending one grain to each neighbor. The cascade can be tiny or enormous, and over time the system tunes itself to a critical state where avalanche sizes follow a power law. Nobody sets that up; it just happens. Click anywhere on the grid to drop a grain by hand.

Abelian sandpile: drop a grain, and any cell reaching 4 topples one grain to each neighbor, cascading until stable. The avalanche sizes go power-law without anyone tuning them there. -> petri

Drop mode center
Total grains 0
Avalanche sizes (log-log)

source petri/fugue