Three-Body Problem

Application ID: 48491


The graviational three body problem involves the calculation of the positions and velocities of three objects under mutual gravitational attraction, given their position and velocity at some initial time.

While the three-body problem does not have a general analytic solution and is known to display chaotic behavior, certain initial conditions are known to repeat the same configuration periodically over time.

In this example, the gravitational force is added as a Particle-Particle Interaction force. Two known periodic solutions are compared: the stable figure-eight configuration and the inherently unstable Lagrange configuration.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: