How do I calculate the motion of 2 massive bodies in space?

Posted by 1224 on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by 1224
Published on 2014-01-25T16:10:50Z Indexed on 2014/05/28 4:08 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 194

Filed under:

physics

|

2d-physics

|

simulations

I'm writing code simulating the 2-dimensional motion of two massive bodies with gravitational fields.

The bodies' masses are known and I have a gravitational force equation. I know from that force I can get a differential equation for coordinates. I know that I once I solve this equation I will get the coordinates. I will need to make up some initial position and some initial velocity.

I'd like to end up with a numeric solver for the ordinal differential equation for coordinates to get the formulas that I can write in code. Could someone break down how from laws and initial conditions we get to the formulas that calculate x and y at time t?

© Game Development or respective owner

Related posts about physics

How to implement friction in a physics engine based on "Advanced Character Physics"

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I have implemented a physics engine based on the concepts in the classic text Advanced Character Physics by Thomas Jakobsen. Friction is only discussed very briefly in the article and Jakobsen himself notes how "other and better friction models than this could and should be implemented." Generally… >>> More
Approximating walking physics via simpler sliding physics

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I am modeling walking insects. I implement them as cuboids and use forces (including friction and drag), to control motion. However, the movement characteristics of this 'sliding box' physics don't match those due to a legged creature. For example, legged creatures near-instantly accelerate to… >>> More
Sharing data between graphics and physics engine in the game?

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm writing the game engine that consists of few modules. Two of them are the graphics engine and the physics engine. I wonder if it's a good solution to share data between them? Two ways (sharing or not) looks like that: Without sharing data GraphicsModel{ //some common for graphics and physics… >>> More
Keep basic game physics separate from basic game object? [on hold]

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
If anybody has dealt with a similar situation I'd be interested in your experience/wisdom, I'm developing a 2D game library in C++, I have game objects which have very basic physics, they also have movement classes attached to differing states, for example, a different movement type based on whether… >>> More
How can I split Excel data from one row into multiple rows

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Good afternoon, Is there a way to split data from one row and store to separate rows? I have a large file that contains scheduling information and I'm trying to develop a list that comprises each combination of course, day, term and period per line. For example I have a file similiar to this: Crs:Sn… >>> More

Related posts about 2d-physics

Implementing a wrapping wire (like the Worms Ninja Rope) in a 2D physics engine

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I've been trying out some rope-physics recently, and I've found that the "standard" solution - making a rope from a series of objects strung together with springs or joints - is unsatisfying. Especially when rope swinging is relevant to gameplay. I don't really care about a rope's ability to wrap… >>> More
Converting 2D Physics to 3D.

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm new to game physics and I am trying to adapt a simple 2D ball simulation for a 3D simulation with the Java3D library. I have this problem: Two things: 1) I noted down the values generated by the engine: X/Y are too high and minX/minY/maxY/maxX values are causing trouble. Sometimes the balls… >>> More
How do I build a 2D physics engine?

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
The most advanced games I've made are a 8-ball pool game made with the physics engine Box2dFlashAS3 and a platform game with levels. When I did platform games, I've always wished to know how to make an engine, so that I could re-use it. When I see games that have slopes, curved slopes, perfect gravity… >>> More
2D Physics Engine to Handle Shapes Composed of Multiple Densities XNA

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
The game I'm working on involves shapes that might be composed of multiple materials in a variety of ways. Let's just take for example a wooden rod with and sizable tip of iron or say a block composed of a couple triangles of stone and aluminum and small nugget of gold. The shapes and compositions… >>> More
default xna 4.0 gametime don´t works well for 2D physics

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I am developing a game using Visual Studio 2010 and XNA 4.0, after advancing to some extent with the project (a platform based 2d platformer msdn starter kit) I got to test it on different computers with different hardware (CPU, graphics, etc.) and I found that the speed of movement object of the… >>> More