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<h2>Sixteen-body problem</h2> This is an interactive model of an unrestricted two-dimensional sixteen-body gravitational problem, based on the general solution of an <I>n</I>-body gravitational problem. The theoretical background for this solution is set forth in the book:<br><a href="http://www.grevytpress.com" target="central"><I>Gravitation: master key to the universe: the greatest mystery of science is solved!</I></a> (ISBN 0-9689120-0-1) by Karel Havel.<br> The simulation is programmed to automatically stop either when one of the bodies flies out of the bounds or on a near collision between any two bodies (such collision could be simulated accurately if a much smaller time increment for the calculations was used).<br><br> Before you start experimenting with the model, please read the sections Technical Comments and Suggested Experiments.<br><br> <b>Your browser must be enabled for Java 2. To start the model, click on <i>Simulation</i> in the left panel. Allow several minutes, depending on your Internet connection, for the applet to load.</b> <br><hr width="100%" size="2"><br>  <h2>Operation</h2> <nl> <li>There are sixteen bodies arranged in two concentrical circles. The satellites in the outer circle are considerably less massive than the suns in the inner circle. <li>There are three control buttons in the top of the left column: Play, Pause, and Reset, followed by a number of editable fields below. Click on Play button to run the simulation. Click on Pause to stop it. Click on Reset to restore the defaults. </nl> <br> <br><hr width="100%" size="2"><br>  <h2>Please observe this:</h2> To view the orbits, click on Play and observe how the eight suns chase one another along an inner circle and the eight satellites chase one another along an outer circle in the opposite direction. The orbits are unstable. After a while they become distorted. Note that the distortions are symmetrical.<br><br>There is not enough space to enter all variables from the screen. <br><hr width="100%" size="2"><br>   <applet code="org.opensourcephysics.ejs.LauncherApplet.class" codebase="." archive="_library/_ejsLibrary.jar,unbody16.jar" name="unbody16" id="unbody16" simulation="unbody16.unbody16" capture="mainFrame" width="397" height="320"> </applet>