Informal Version of The Newton n-body Problem
The physical problem can be informally stated as:
- Given only the present positions and velocities of a group of celestial bodies, predict their motions for all future time and deduce them for all past time.
More precisely,
- Consider point masses, ..., in three-dimensional (physical) space. Suppose that the force of attraction experienced between each pair of particles is Newtonian. Then, if the initial positions in space and initial velocities are specified for every particle at some present instant, determine the position of each particle at every future (or past) moment of time.
In mathematical terms, this means to find a global solution of the initial value problem for the differential equations describing the -body problem.
Read more about this topic: n-body Problem
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