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The essence of the central-force problem is to solve for the position r [note 1] of a particle moving under the influence of a central force F, either as a function of time t or as a function of the angle φ relative to the center of force and an arbitrary axis.
In the classical central-force problem of classical mechanics, some potential energy functions () produce motions or orbits that can be expressed in terms of well-known functions, such as the trigonometric functions and elliptic functions. This article describes these functions and the corresponding solutions for the orbits.
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
Solving the equation for r(t) is the key to the two-body problem. The solution depends on the specific force between the bodies, which is defined by (). For the case where () follows an inverse-square law, see the Kepler problem.
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.
As shown below, the problem also conforms to Jean Le Rond D'Alembert's non-Newtonian first and second Principles and to the nonlinear n-body problem algorithm, the latter allowing for a closed form solution for calculating those interactive forces. The problem of finding the general solution of the n-body problem was considered very important ...
The Kepler problem is named after Johannes Kepler, who proposed Kepler's laws of planetary motion (which are part of classical mechanics and solved the problem for the orbits of the planets) and investigated the types of forces that would result in orbits obeying those laws (called Kepler's inverse problem). [1]
In celestial mechanics, Lambert's problem is concerned with the determination of an orbit from two position vectors and the time of flight, posed in the 18th century by Johann Heinrich Lambert and formally solved with mathematical proof by Joseph-Louis Lagrange. It has important applications in the areas of rendezvous, targeting, guidance, and ...