Optimizer Pinball
Four optimizers. Four surfaces. One visual lab for update geometry. Tune the learning rate, switch surfaces, and compare how GD, Momentum, Nesterov, and Adam move toward the minimum.
Optimizer Pinball
Surface
Elliptical bowl. GD zigzags, Adam often cuts straighter.
Optimizers
Starting point
Far corner
Begins far from the minimum so big zigzags show up immediately.
Board
color heatThe balls are optimizers searching for the white minimum. Color shows the heat; Calm makes the paths easier to read.
Search course
The balls are optimizers searching for the white minimum. Heat shows high and low loss.
Far corner
Step
0
Ready to run
0.100Playable
Loss above the minimum · log scalelower is better
quadratic reference · condition number 10 · GD shrinks at a fixed geometric rate
Leaderboard
1.GD0 steps
Loss: 34.3750d=3.536
2.Momentum0 steps
Loss: 34.3750d=3.536
3.Adam0 steps
Loss: 34.3750d=3.536
TheoryConvex OptimizationWhy convexity guarantees convergenceTheorySGD vs Adam vs MuonUpdate rules and convergence theoryQuizFind Your Level10-question diagnostic placement
Built by Robby Sneiderman