Solving the Three Body Problem
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Published 2020-01-20
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The three body problem is famous for being impossible to solve. But actually it's been solved many times, and in ingenious ways. Some of those solutions are incredibly useful, and some are incredibly bizarre.
Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer & Adriano Leal
Post Production: Yago Ballarini, Max Willians, Pedro Osinski
Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: / @jrsschattenberg
Physics - and arguably all of science changed forever in 1687 when Isaac Newton published his Principia. Within it were equations of motion and gravity that transformed our erratic-seeming cosmos into a perfectly tuned machine of clockwork predictability. Given the current positions and velocities of the bodies of the solar system, Newton’s equations could be used in principle be used to calculate their locations at any distant time, future or past. I say “in principle” because the reality isn’t so simple. Despite the beauty of Newton’s equations, they lead to a simple solution for planetary motion in only one case - when two and only two bodies orbit each other sans any other gravitational influence in the universe. Add just one more body and in most cases all motion becomes fundamentally chaotic - there exists no simple solution. This is the three-body problem, and we’ve been trying to solve it for over 300 years.
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All Comments (21)
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Bet this video has had its best viewership numbers yet this past week
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"We are not impressed, and you're still worms" - Trisolaris
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"The first to do so was Euler" because of course he was
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The universe's preferred solution for the Three Body Problem is to eject one of the bodies from the system.
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PBS space time have an amazing effect on me: They both make me feel bad for not pursuing studies in Astronomy (my true passion) and also make me feel good for not having pursued studies in Astronomy
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6:37 The people who did those calculations by hand were computers. The word computer used to be a job title.
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Do not answer. Do not answer. DO NOT ANSWER.
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"....with Newton's other great invention, calculus." Leibniz grumbles in the corner.
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Pre-modern-day-computer-space-travel is so impressive to me. To calculate that stuff out by hand sounds like hell
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Just as I was reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Absolute masterpiece! Welcome to the world of Three-Body!
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It is absolutely amazing to me to learn that Lagrange points were first discovered not necessarily because of their utility or for any reason we find them interesting today, but simply because they represented points in a 3-body system for which it was actually possible to calculate solutions to the problem. I just love how much the branches of human discovery and knowledge feed off of one another - "Here's an interesting way to have a comprehensible 3-body problem! Oh, we can also park space craft in these places, too!"
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As many commenters also pointed out, The three body problem is also the title of an amazing sci-fi novel by Liu Cixin... I would definitely recommend it to anyone enjoying this channel. The author mentions some pretty weird and imaginative "applications" of particle physics by advanced alien civilizations. He also mentions a very interesting hypothesis on why we haven't made any contact yet with any alien civilization. Perhaps you would like to comment on this imaginative trilogy?
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[Trisolaris wants to know your location]
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Actually, you don't have to handle them separately. Whenever I have a three body problem I just dump them in the same grave.
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After watching this, it seems like the Trisolarans could have guesstimated their planet's position fairly well.
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When 3 bodies eject one of them, it's called a friend zone.
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7:50 Because Euler has enough stuff named after himself already.
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8:23 His right hand shows that planetary bodies aren't the only masses that bounced back and forth
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“The first was Euler” Me : Of course it was.
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Netflix has landed me here
