CentralNotice n From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search This article is about the problem in classical mechanics. For the problem in quantum mechanics, see Many-body problem . For engineering problems and simulations involving many components, see Multibody system and Multibody simulation . In physics , the n -body problem is the problem of predicting the individual motions of a group of celestial objects interacting with each other gravitationally . [ 1 ] Solving this problem has been motivated by the desire to understand the motions of the Sun , Moon , planets and the visible stars . In the 20th century, understanding the dynamics of globular cluster star systems became an important n -body problem. [ 2 ] The n -body problem in general relativity is considerably more difficult to solve. The classical physical problem can be informally sta...