Reduced mass Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Reduced mass, often written μ, is a concept that allows one to solve the two-body problem of mechanics as if it were a one body problem. Given two bodies, one with mass M and the other mass m, they will orbit the center of mass of the two bodies. The equivalent one-body problem, with the position of one body with respect to the other as the unknown, is that of a single body of inertial mass

with the force the actual one.

Applying the gravitational formula we get that the position of the first body with respect to the second is governed by the same differential eqation as the position of a very small body orbiting a body with a mass equal to the sum of the two masses, because m1.m2/μ=m1+m2.

If one body is much more massive than the other, it is useful to think of that body as fixed in space and the other body as having mass μ. As the name suggests, the reduced mass will always be less than the actual mass of the body.

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