”Wrestling of Stars at Close Encounters” by Shi Ye and Bonnie Weiberg

Edited by Michelle Paulsen

This activity is intended to demonstrate what an astronomical N-body problem is (the interactions between N stars when they get close to each other, with N as the number of stars in the interaction). This activity allows students to interactively run a program showing two-star and three-star interactions.

This lesson is free to download for use in your classroom.
Click to download the lesson plan as a printable PDF or editable Word Document.

Grade Level: 11-12
Difficulty Level: Introductory
Skills and Topics: Astronomy, binary stars, N-body simulation, modeling
Technical Needs: Computer, Internet