Re: n-body problem/variable count

On Wed, 5 Dec 2006, Igor wrote:

Well technically, you've still got nine independent equations. It's
just that three of them are trivial and represent the motion of the CM.
I don't know why you are making a big fuss. This can be found in any
mechanics textbook that lays out the details of the n body problem.

This is usenet! What else to do other than make a big fuss! Actually, I was very sleep-deprived and it was easier to post about it than think about it. I was wondering if there's any nice simple way to explain it - it being in textbooks doesn't make it easy to explain (eg what is a good way to tell students _why_ dS = dQ/T).

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