>
> Wow, I wonder since in theory you wouldn't have any friction and decided
to
> throw a marble in this gravity well...  Well, I think if you'd look at it
from a
> camera angle like the one you currently have, it would just look like a
marble
> rolling from side to side, never stopping since there would be no
friction,
> etc...  but on the top side, as a 2D view of this, you would probably see
the
> marble orbiting around planets and accelerating near them and slowing down
when
> it's far away...
>

I have seen this in real life:

In Trondheim, Norway, there's a museum called Vitensenteret (the
Knowledge-center) which have this large, about 2x2 metres, "sink" with two
holes to resemple the potential from a twin star system. Then there are som
small balls to drop, push, throw or whatever into the sink to see it move
about as a planet would in real life. This was built to demonstrate chaotic
motion, as this kind of dynamical system is chaotic. In fact, one could
easily demonstrate it by letting the ball go from the same starting point
twice and observe what path it might take.

~simenkv.

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