[ODE] Trying to grasp an overview of how ODE works

[Ben Toner]

Hi I'm new to this kind of stuff and I'm trying to figure out an overview in 
my head of how the whole process works.  Would the following possibly be a 
correct understanding of the process used in ODE and general physics 
simulators:

User specified forces are applied to bodies
These are accumulated in their acceleration
The bodies are then moved with respect to their acceleration
Collisions between bodies are detected - contact points and penetration 
depths
Each contact point is treated as a constraint where the goal is to generate 
a force at that point that will cause zero penetration depth
The inertia tensor of a body will be used to apply the forces when 
calculated to the centre of mass of the body rather than each individual 
contact point
Additional constraints may exist between bodies such as joints
All together these constraints can be thought of as a group of simultaneous 
equations
These equations can be expressed in the form of a matrix whose size is 
dependent on the number of constraints
The matrix is solved using some maths called an LCP solver

Thanks!

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