Home/ Questions/Q 7719903
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-01T03:31:50+00:00

I ‘ve been set the following problem and don’t have a clue how to

  • 0

I ‘ve been set the following problem and don’t have a clue how to start any help would be much appreciated.

In 2-D, read in the initial positions, velocities and masses of two bodies (suns, stars etc) . You will need to define suitable units for these. Then using the gravitational equation, calculate the force on each body from the other, and use Newton’s 3rd law to calculate the acceleration of that body. Generate a file with the positions of both bodies at each timestep for a long time period. Use this file to plot the paths of the two bodies.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    • Store the initial position, velocity and masses.
    • Calculate the magnitude and direction of the gravitational force.
    • Knowing the force, you can calculate the acceleration of each body.
    • Knowing the acceleration you can calculate the new velocity.
    • Knowing the velocity you can calculate the new position.

    Using suitably small time steps you can get a reasonably good approximation to continuous motion.

    • 0