|
 |
"Orbits of all sorts," by Donald G. Saari. Nature, 3 September 1998, pages 19-20.
Given a collection of n bodies under the force of mutual gravitational attraction, how will they move? With as few as 3 bodies, such a system displays sensitive dependence on initial conditions, a hallmark of chaos, and the paths the bodies take become extremely difficult to predict. Mathematicians have for decades tried to solve whatever bits of this complex puzzle they can. This article discusses recent progress by Gregory Buck, who has uncovered a special class of approximate solutions to the n-body problem. Although the solutions are only approximate, Buck's approach may provide new insights.
--- Allyn Jackson
 |
Comments: Email Webmaster |
