Theories in Physics: The Three Body Problem Part 2

When dealing with a two-body system the reason why the positions of the two bodies can be determined, even though there seem to be more variable of position and velocity within the problem than provided with the function for momentum, is because the relative velocity of both bodies is taken in regards to the center of gravity of the two bodies which reduces the amount of unknown variables. This center of gravity when dealing with multiple (also defined as n) bodies changes very drastically and rather than reduce the amount of unknown variables, it increases them.

This issue further is apparent when taking into account the long time scales that the universe functions upon. In the 2009 study that was mentioned in Part 1, the scientists made their experiment to function within the future at scale of multiple decades, if not centuries. The reasoning behind this is the idea that if the distance of the Sun and Mercury is increased by one centimeter although in the beginning it may seem that the change to the solar system is miniscule if not non-existent, over time this could possibly cause the entire solar system to collapse. An easier way to understand this concept is that thinking that a tornado in Texas could possibly be started by the flap of a butterfly’s wings in California.

The idea that the N-Body Problem has an immense amount of unknown variables is known as “chaotic” by scientists, and will be discussed within Part 3 of The Three Body Problem.