The Terror of Threes

Poet's Notes

(Show)

Become a Premium Member and post notes and photos about your poem like John Anderson.

"In Physics, the 'three-body problem' is a classical mechanics problem that deals with predicting the motion of three mutually interacting point masses solely under the influence of gravity. In this problem, three bodies, such as stars, planets, or other celestial objects, are considered, and their positions and velocities at a given time are known. The task is to calculate their motions over time, taking into account the gravitational attraction between each pair of bodies, simultaneously."

"There is no general analytical solution to this problem. While the two-body problem (with only two interacting bodies) can be solved analytically, the addition of a third body introduces complexities that prevent finding a simple, closed-form solution. The behavior of three interacting bodies can be highly unpredictable and chaotic, making it difficult to determine their long-term motions precisely and can lead to drastically different outcomes over time. This is known as 'sensitive dependence on initial conditions', which is one of the hallmarks of chaos theory."

---------------------------------------------------------------

Listen to poem:

Three celestial bodies 'tis a crowd.
A trinity, a tussle kerfuffle if you please!
The 'three body problem' in space
made Sir Isaac Newton's head ache.
He couldn't sleep at night.
For its easy to see how two bodies interact.
They're a couple
Adding the third one
makes a terrible three, a triad triumvirate.
No one can predict how they will interact
with each other.
Can three tango?
Can you ever really know what
the other one is doing while
you are watching the other one at the time?
It's sneaky what the un-watched
can do behind your back,
in the corner of your eye!
For when three converge,
each longing for an equal share,
on the stage, under the bright lights,
all sense of unity fades into a fractured affair
and a terrible selfish chaotic fight.
But nevertheless, despite all this,
a threesome can be kinky!

Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.