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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The Three-body Problem
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2021 Oct 25, 19:30 -0700
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2021 Oct 25, 19:30 -0700
My answer was far from complete, but I hope that I clarified the main points:
1. 3 body problem was necessary for making accurate Lunar tables, and this was important for navigation.
2. It was solved approximately by the middle 18 century, with approximation sufficient for navigation.
3. Later research showed that it does not have an exact mathematical solution, but using computers, the position of the Moon can be predicted for thousands of years in advance.
This is a nice example from history of science when a mathematical solution of a problem (Lunar theory in this case) competes with a "hardware solution" (chronometer). Hardware usually wins. But not always. There are many similar examples.
Alex.
