Jacobi coordinates

Jacobi coordinates are a system of coordinates used in the study of many-body problems in physics, particularly in celestial mechanics and molecular dynamics. They are named after the mathematician Karl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. This coordinate system is especially useful for simplifying the analysis of systems of particles by transforming the coordinates to better exploit the symmetries inherent in the problem. In a typical application, Jacobi coordinates are used to describe the positions of \( n \) particles.