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 allowes the two-body problem to be solved as if it were a one-body problem.

Links:

  1. Wikipedia.

reduced_mass

The reduced mass of the system.

Symbol:

mu

Latex:

\(\mu\)

Dimension:

mass

first_mass

The mass of the first body.

Symbol:

m1

Latex:

\(m_{1}\)

Dimension:

mass

second_mass

The mass of the second body.

Symbol:

m2

Latex:

\(m_{2}\)

Dimension:

mass

law

mu = 1 / (1 / m1 + 1 / m2)

Latex:
\[\mu = \frac{1}{\frac{1}{m_1} + \frac{1}{m_2}}\]