Host: Benjamin Thompson
Welcome back to the Nature Podcast. This week, it’s our festive spectacular.
Host: Nick Howe
Woo!
Host: Benjamin Thompson
Coming up in the show, we’ll be hearing about a solution to the three-body problem, and quizzing our reporters on Nature’s news from the past year.
Host: Nick Howe
Plus, we’ll talk about some of Nature’s 10, and have some seasonal science songs. I’m Nick Howe.
Host: Benjamin Thompson
And I’m Benjamin Thompson.
[Jingle]
Host: Benjamin Thompson
There’s one problem that has stumped scientists for centuries. It’s called the three-body problem and it goes all the way back to when Isaac Newton was testing his theory of gravity. If you have two bodies, for example, the Earth moving around the Sun, it’s easy to work out the orbits of the two objects, but add a third body into the system, and the movement becomes vastly more difficult to predict. This is the three-body problem – trying to mathematically describe and predict the movements…
