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I think this is correct, and that a good illustration is planetary orbits - 2 bodies alone can never collide if they didn’t start out in intersecting trajectori

by mokus 7y ago

I think this is correct, and that a good illustration is planetary orbits - 2 bodies alone can never collide if they didn’t start out in intersecting trajectories. They need a third to perturb their movements or they will just keep orbiting the same way forever.

minitoar 7y ago
Won’t the orbits decay due to tidal forces in some cases?
- mokus 7y ago
  In reality, yes - for purpose of illustration, I was thinking of idealized planets acting as point masses.
- fsh 7y ago
  Tidal forces are much too weak to capture planets. In practice, yoy always need three bodies.