3 Body Problem: What Is the Three-Body Problem, Explained

As its name suggests, the upcoming Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem takes its cues from real-life physics’ three-body problem. So what exactly is the three-body problem, and how does it apply to the show?

Related: 3 Body Problem from Game of Thrones Creators Gets Dazzling First Trailer

What Is the Three-Body Problem in Netflix’s 3 Body Problem?

In Netflix’s 3 Body Problem as in real life, the three-body problem is a physics and classical mechanics problem – a question you can answer by performing an experiment – that models the motion of three gravitationally interacting point masses. What does that mean in plain English? By using the initial positions and velocities of three bodies (natch), the problem maps out their respective trajectories. The Earth, Moon, and Sun collectively represent the first and easiest to grasp three-body problem.

No one has definitively solved the three-body problem in over 300 years. That’s not to say that solutions don’t exist. On the contrary, multiple scientific studies have put forward solutions that jibe with both Isaac Newton’s laws of motion and law of universal gravitation. It just means we don’t yet have a simple way of taking any three bodies’ positions and velocities and plotting out their orbital trajectories. (There’s a whole Reddit rabbit hole on the subject that armchair scientists among you are welcome to tumble down.)

Related: Game of Thrones Creators & Rian Johnson to Adapt The Three-Body Problem for Netflix

What does any of this have to do with 3 Body Problem itself? That’s a major spoiler, so stop reading now if you want to go into the series fresh. Still here? Great. Okay, so much like author Liu Cixin’s original novel, The Three-Body Problem, the Netflix series is set in an alternate past, present, and future in which Earth comes face-to-face with aliens from a star system that boasts a trio of suns orbiting each other.

As such, solving the three-body problem is priority number one for 3 Body Problem‘s aliens, the aptly named Trisolarans, as their suns’ erratic orbits periodically wreak havoc on (and will eventually destroy) their homeworld.

All eight episodes of 3 Body Problem Season 1 premiere on Netflix on Thursday, March 21, 2024.