I recently finished watching the 3 Body Problem on Netflix so this question came to mind. Can anyone explain (in simple terms) why the 3 body problem was deemed unsolvable even by the advanced alien race in the series? Even better, can anyone here simplify what the 3 Body Problem actually is in Physics? It really got my curiosity. Thanks! 🙂
In: Physics
if you take any 2 masses and put them in space you can perfectly predict exactly where they will be at any point in time ever.
as they orbit
if you try with 3 (or more) masses, you cant (outside of certain special cases). the best you can do is simulate it, which adds increasingly more error the longer out you simulate and the faster your simulation is.
I belive it has been proven to be unsolvable (as in, there is no general equation you can put the initial positions and the current time to get out the exact positions at that time) , but im not 100% sure, proving unsolvability can get strange
Latest Answers