SLD
Contributor
Is the three body truly unsolvable? Despite centuries of advances in mathematics a direct general solution to the problem of three bodies orbiting each other has yet to be solved. We have found numerous solutions to particular periodic orbits, but not generally in terms of all possible orbits. Of course using computers and numerical methods we can get arbitrarily close and over the last twenty or so years we have gotten far better, and are able to apply these techniques to many other bodies.
But is it unsolved because it is not possible to solve it? Or is it just way too complicated for us to solve, involving way too many variables?
I understand that some formulations involve 18 or so differential equations. While difficult, not necessarily impossible. But some differential equations cannot be analytically solved, only numerically.
I put this in mathematics because I don’t think it is a physics problem per se.
But is it unsolved because it is not possible to solve it? Or is it just way too complicated for us to solve, involving way too many variables?
I understand that some formulations involve 18 or so differential equations. While difficult, not necessarily impossible. But some differential equations cannot be analytically solved, only numerically.
I put this in mathematics because I don’t think it is a physics problem per se.