Sunflower spiral fakes force layout deterministically
Laying out a graph of people-nodes around a center anchor without running a physics simulation, while still producing an organic non-grid look.
Replaced a vis-network force-directed graph with a deterministic placement that visually reads as force-layout but is just trig. Sort nodes (direct ties first, then by interaction weight), then place each one at angle i * GOLDEN_ANGLE (Math.PI * (3 - Math.sqrt(5))) and radius baseR + sqrt(t) * span where t is the normalised index. The sqrt() spreads inner-circle nodes apart so they do not clump and pushes outer nodes further so they spread evenly. This is the same math as a sunflower seed packing. Result feels organic because golden-angle placement never repeats and the sqrt(t) radius matches how real force layouts settle. Bonus over force simulation: deterministic across reloads (no jittering), zero JS runtime cost, no dependency, works in pure SVG, and you can pin specific nodes by special-casing them before the spiral starts.
When a graph visualisation needs an organic non-grid layout but does not need actual physics, try the golden-angle + sqrt(t) sunflower placement before reaching for d3-force or vis-network — fewer dependencies, deterministic, and visually equivalent for the small-to-medium-size case.