Why is the 3 body problem, a problem?

892 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

I was in physics and had a brief conversation on chaos theory and we started talking about space and he briefly mentioned about the 3 body problem.

Thing is, everything interacts with other things for a reason right? I understand it’s complicated, but if you know all the necessary data, why can’t we do it?

In: Planetary Science

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It isn’t an unsolved problem at all anymore (if that’s what you mean) and hasn’t been for a while. Three body problems have been solved and there are continuously increasing number of three body systems being found all the time with computer models.

They were solved a long time ago with calculus.

The issue is that most “problems” result in one body being ejected from the system. I highly recommend watching YouTube videos for these demonstrated. The calculus is way above ELI5 but the visuals you will think make perfect sense.

It is called a problem in the sense that there are an infinite number of ways you can introduce three bodies in motion with large enough mass to start rotating about one another. There is always a solution.

In the context of the show, they were wondering how long life could sustain in a three body system. That could be solved too

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