Three-body problem
PHYSICS PUZZLE ALMOST CRACKED USING DRUNKARD’S WALK
The three-body problem that’s plagued science since the days of Isaac Newton is closer to being solved
Reported by Ashley Hamer
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Apair of Israeli researchers used the ‘drunkard’s walk’ to calculate the outcome of a cosmic dance between three massive objects – the so-called three-body problem. For physicists, predicting the motion of two massive objects, like a pair of stars, is easy. But when a third object enters the picture, the problem becomes unsolvable.
When two massive objects get close to each other, their gravitational attraction influences the paths they take in a way that can be described by a simple mathematical formula. Adding a third object isn’t so simple; the interactions between the three objects become chaotic.