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
Famous quotes containing the words informal, version, newton and/or problem:
“We are now a nation of people in daily contact with strangers. Thanks to mass transportation, school administrators and teachers often live many miles from the neighborhood schoolhouse. They are no longer in daily informal contact with parents, ministers, and other institution leaders . . . [and are] no longer a natural extension of parental authority.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)
“I should think that an ordinary copy of the King James version would have been good enough for those Congressmen.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“I frame no hypotheses; for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.”
—Isaac Newton (1642–1727)
“Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren’t a little flower somebody sewed on.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)