An atlas of periodic solutions to the three-body problem

(threebodyorbits.com)

89 points | by danielmorozoff 2 days ago

8 comments

  • deskamess 1 hour ago
    I guess I misunderstood or mis-scoped the problem. Does the 3-body problem state 'the general case' has no solution, but that does not preclude some configurations from having a solution?
    • incognito124 1 hour ago
      That's exactly the case
      • isolli 1 hour ago
        It's also not computable, as in chaotic. Small differences in initial positions will lead to unpredictably large differences in trajectory (with small and large having specific meanings to match the formal definition of a chaotic system).
  • khalic 9 minutes ago
    I'm going to spend so much time on this website, very good work
  • inatreecrown2 1 hour ago
    Very cool visuals and site! Could I make a suggestion: You show the masses (1,1,1), but not the starting positions, which alter the course of events too.
  • MeteorMarc 17 minutes ago
    I assume some of the solutions are stable against small perturbations, while others are not. That would be interesting to see.
    • summa_tech 16 minutes ago
      I think that's what "STABLE ONLY" clickable text filters by.
  • RALaBarge 1 hour ago
    This is an amazing looking website, I like it a lot.
  • IshKebab 5 minutes ago
    I assume this is at least partially vibe coded, but this is the first good vibe coded website I've seen. Amazing work.
  • RugnirViking 1 hour ago
    very ai but also pretty cool. wheres the data source? could I find my own periodic solution?
  • nautilus12 1 hour ago
    Is this assumed to be 2D? I was going to ask if there are any observed examples of 3 body equilibrium observed in nature.
    • raverbashing 51 minutes ago
      Yes. Because 3 points are coplanar, so every "3D problem" with 3 objects can be turned into a 2D problem on the correspondent plane

      (of course in real life your plane would keep changing, and probably some other complicated math I can't think right now)

      • raincole 23 minutes ago
        Why would the plane keep changing? If there are only these three objects, won't the vectors of their gravitational pull to each other all be on this plane too?
        • raverbashing 14 minutes ago
          Not from an external point of view, as you might have a momentum component perpendicular to that plane

          (but yes I think you might be right if we're centered on the CG)