Mostly, I’m interested in L4 and L5, but the more I try to explain it to myself the more I realize I have no idea how any of them work except maybe L1- just an equilibrium of the two forces?
In: 5
It’s an equilibrium of forces, but there’s more than 2. Sort of.
L1, L2, and L3 think of as in a saddle. To go further clockwise or counterclockwise they have to gain energy, so if they drifted a tiny bit in that way, that would come back to the middle. BUT, if they drifted any closer in our out (towards or away from the sun or the earth) they would start drifting faster in that direction and then end up somewhere different.
L4 and L5 are at the top of a hill, if they drift in ANY direction, they keep going faster.
As for the forces, there’s the gravitational pull of the sun and earth (or whatever two bodies you’re looking at the orbits of), but there’s also a Coriolis effect that pulls and pushes the satellite (or whatever) away from or towards earth the further you get from the L4 and L5.
Dunno if that was LI5 enough…
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