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The three-body problem is a special case of the n-body problem, which describes how n objects move under one of the physical forces, such as gravity. These problems have a global analytical solution in the form of a convergent power series, as was proven by Karl F. Sundman for n = 3 and by Qiudong Wang for n > 3 (see n-body problem for details
Gravity field surrounding Earth from a macroscopic perspective. Newton's law of universal gravitation can be written as a vector equation to account for the direction of the gravitational force as well as its magnitude. In this formula, quantities in bold represent vectors.
His answer came in his law of universal gravitation, which states that the force between a mass M and another mass m is given by the formula =, where r is the distance between the masses and G is the gravitational constant. Given this force law and his equations of motion, Newton was able to show that two point masses attracting each other ...
The most prominent example of the classical two-body problem is the gravitational case (see also Kepler problem), arising in astronomy for predicting the orbits (or escapes from orbit) of objects such as satellites, planets, and stars. A two-point-particle model of such a system nearly always describes its behavior well enough to provide useful ...
Newton's second law says that mass times acceleration m i d 2 q i / dt 2 is equal to the sum of the forces on the mass. Newton's law of gravity says that the gravitational force felt on mass m i by a single mass m j is given by [15] = ‖ ‖ ‖ ‖ = ‖ ‖, where G is the gravitational constant and ‖ q j − q i ‖ is the ...
The problem of two fixed centers conserves energy; in other words, the total energy is a constant of motion.The potential energy is given by =where represents the particle's position, and and are the distances between the particle and the centers of force; and are constants that measure the strength of the first and second forces, respectively.
Introductory physics textbooks discuss central forces, like gravity, by models based on action-at-distance without discussing the cause of such forces or issues with it until the topics of relativity and fields are discussed. For example, see The Feynman Lectures on Physics on gravity. [4]
Reconciliation of general relativity with the laws of quantum physics remains a problem, however, as there is a lack of a self-consistent theory of quantum gravity. It is not yet known how gravity can be unified with the three non-gravitational forces: strong, weak and electromagnetic.