Available Languages: English, Russian

This collection of EJS models shows the motions of three or more bodies attracted to one another by gravitational forces. The following applets are included in the collection:

1. Restricted three-body problem - a satellite in the binary planet system
2. Examples of the restricted three-body problem (in two frames of reference)
3. Figure-eight periodic planar three-body motion
4. Figure-eight three-body motion in two frames of reference
5. Variations of figure-eight planar three-body motion
6. Three-body motions in the equilateral configuration
7. Regular planar motions of four bodies of equal masses

These Java applets allow us to observe fascinating trajectories of three-body motions that delight the eye and challenge our intuition. However, among the great variety of extremely complex motions there exist a finite subset of very simple regular motions. Some of these regular motions are also illustrated in this collection.

EJS applets on this site were created with EJS version 2.0 and are not compatible with the latest version of EJS.

Please note that this resource requires at least version 1.5 of Java Applet Plug-in.