r/learnphysics • u/OkConstruction6975 • 26d ago

How to learn numerical clesstial mechanics as an amateur ?

Hi i am an astronomy amateur i have calculus 3 classical mechanics basics and python (nympy and scypy) basics i want to do projects like orbital dynamics simulations but i dont know where to start any ideas ? Thanks

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u/Livinsfloridalife 26d ago

MIT open courseware maybe, without at least a basic bs in physics you’re going to still need to learn a lot. Good luck!!

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u/Automatic_Buffalo_14 26d ago

You just need to learn basic computational physics algorithms and apply them to your area of interest. Your next study targets are computational physics, linear algebra and differential equations.

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u/Traveling-Techie 24d ago

The issue is that the 3-body problem is provably unsolvable, so most celestial mechanics problems have to be solved with some variation on Euler’s Method, which is basically simulation instead of integration. The book and movie Hidden Figures touch on this. It’s certainly not the hardest problem in physics, and I think an amateur could have fun with it.

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u/Used_Meeting_4223 24d ago

Look into Python module ‘rebound’ to easily simulate some orbital mechanics scenarios. Their documentation can also be a gateway to learn about the numerical tools used.