Reduced mass of a two-body system¶

Reduced mass is effective inertial mass in a system with two or more particles when they are interacting with each other. This allows the two-body problem to be solved as if it were a one-body problem.

Links:

Wikipedia.

reduced_mass¶: The reduced mass of the system.

Symbol:: mu
Latex:: \(\mu\)
Dimension:: mass

first_mass¶: The mass of the first body.

Symbol:: m_1
Latex:: \(m_{1}\)
Dimension:: mass

second_mass¶: The mass of the second body.

Symbol:: m_2
Latex:: \(m_{2}\)
Dimension:: mass

law¶

mu = 1 / (1 / m_1 + 1 / m_2)

Latex:: \[\mu = \frac{1}{\frac{1}{m_{1}} + \frac{1}{m_{2}}}\]