What is a Three Body Problem?
In: Physics
Two body problems are straightforward and you can solve for all positions in one go.
Look at the Earth and Moon, you can take the masses, distance, and orbital velocities and plot out what the orbit will look like for a longggg time
Now lets add a third body to the problem, an asteroid on track to shoot between the Earth and the Moon.
If it takes *just* the right course it’ll continue on straight ahead and not deviate significantly because the gravity of the Earth and Moon will balance out.
If its a little too close to Earth it’ll hook more towards Earth as Earth’s gravity dominates the equation. The closer it is the stronger the hook.
Similarly if it is closer to the moon it’s orbit will bend towards the moon and change.
For the Earth-Moon system you could just take masses, distances, and orbital velocities and plot things out because they always orbit the center of mass. For this Three Body Problem you now need starting positions so you can figure out if the asteroid is passing through this sweet spot or if its going to hook left or right. You can’t figure out which way it goes without taking the initial conditions and stepping through it, and any error in initial position can result in a big difference in real position several orbits down the line
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