Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / ia / Paper 4 / 4A / Solution

Put $M=m_1+m_2$, define the center of mass $\mathbf{R}=(m_1{\mathbf{x}}_1+m_2{\mathbf{x}}_2)/M$, and let $\mathbf{r}={\mathbf{x}}_1-{\mathbf{x}}_2$ be relative position. Adding the two Newton's second law equations givesThe center of mass has constant velocity, by conservation of total momentum.

Subtracting the particle accelerations instead givesThus relative motion is a one-particle problem with the reduced mass $\mu$, while center-of-mass motion is uniform. The same reduced mass appears in the kinetic energy decomposition $T=\frac{1}{2}M|\dot{\mathbf{R}}{|}^2+\frac{1}{2}\mu |\dot{\mathbf{r}}{|}^2$.