One of the cool facts about gravity is that the gravitational field of a body 'feels' spherical at a distance, even if those bodies are not spherical themselves. There are higher multipoles but they are increasingly suppressed the further you are from the body. So at least for gravity the spherical approximation turns out to be good and justified.

Submission history

From: Benjamin Lehmann [view email]

[v1] Tue, 1 Apr 2025 07:55:39 UTC (2,401 KB)

[v2] Wed, 1 Apr 2026 12:28:24 UTC (3,845 KB)

Anna Cramling, women’s international chess master, should review this paper, having popularized the Cow Opening.

Hmmm… Today is Sep 1st, not Apr 1st. That cow is a bit out of season :)

> Submitted on 1 Apr 2025 (v1), last revised 1 Apr 2026 (this version, v2)