Scientists Are Close to Finally Solving the Three-Body Problem

• In new research, one scientist chips away at the three-body problem.
• The three-body problem refers to astronomers’ inability to track the collision course of three stars hurtling toward one another through space.
• To better predict the fates of these celestial bodies, the secret is to treat space like a leaky balloon made of Swiss cheese.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Are Close to Finally Solving the Three-Body Problem

• In new research, one scientist chips away at the three-body problem.
• The three-body problem refers to astronomers’ inability to track the collision course of three stars hurtling toward one another through space.
• To better predict the fates of these celestial bodies, the secret is to treat space like a leaky balloon made of Swiss cheese.

Random person “What about the four-body problem”

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Are Close to Finally Solving the Three-Body Problem

• In new research, one scientist chips away at the three-body problem.
• The three-body problem refers to astronomers’ inability to track the collision course of three stars hurtling toward one another through space.
• To better predict the fates of these celestial bodies, the secret is to treat space like a leaky balloon made of Swiss cheese.

I thought that had been done.

Using trajectories through six-dimensional phase-space (x,y,z,u,v,w)

I, personally, improved on the algorithm for normal 3-D space (x,y,z) by using piecewise cubic splines. An algorithm that had taken weeks on a supercomputer was speeded up to complete to same accuracy in 5 minutes on a PC. I speeded up the algorithm by about a factor of 10,000.

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Are Close to Finally Solving the Three-Body Problem

• In new research, one scientist chips away at the three-body problem.
• The three-body problem refers to astronomers’ inability to track the collision course of three stars hurtling toward one another through space.
• To better predict the fates of these celestial bodies, the secret is to treat space like a leaky balloon made of Swiss cheese.

I thought that had been done.

Using trajectories through six-dimensional phase-space (x,y,z,u,v,w)

I, personally, improved on the algorithm for normal 3-D space (x,y,z) by using piecewise cubic splines. An algorithm that had taken weeks on a supercomputer was speeded up to complete to same accuracy in 5 minutes on a PC. I speeded up the algorithm by about a factor of 10,000.

I like cubic splines.

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Are Close to Finally Solving the Three-Body Problem

• In new research, one scientist chips away at the three-body problem.
• The three-body problem refers to astronomers’ inability to track the collision course of three stars hurtling toward one another through space.
• To better predict the fates of these celestial bodies, the secret is to treat space like a leaky balloon made of Swiss cheese.

I thought that had been done.

Using trajectories through six-dimensional phase-space (x,y,z,u,v,w)

I, personally, improved on the algorithm for normal 3-D space (x,y,z) by using piecewise cubic splines. An algorithm that had taken weeks on a supercomputer was speeded up to complete to same accuracy in 5 minutes on a PC. I speeded up the algorithm by about a factor of 10,000.

I like cubic splines.

I find it interesting that a lot of algorithms can be made shorter, quicker ,more efficient etc