accuracy

[Guv]

Find a World Almanac or other source of data about the Earth & the Moon.

simulate the Moon's orbit using your software. compare with actual data for the Earth/Moon system. This should give you some clues relating to the precision of your simulation.

[Guv]

Also: There is published data about satellites in a synchronous Earth orbit. Simulate such a satellite and see if it your simulation results in a 24 hour orbit.

[ilia121]

for accuracy use MATLAB.

[SteveCRM]

before I go testing numbers and looking up sattelite coordinates and speeds an everything, I just thought this looked odd...I didn't think it would happen in nature....maybe just a bug in my method?





would it really wobble back and forth like that?

[Martin Wilson]

You should include some collision detection so that it goes kaboom when it hits the planet.

[Guv]

I am not sure what your jpg file is showing. Your simulation could be correct or close to correct.

If viewed from a sun-centered coordinate system, the moon’s orbit looks like a perturbed planetary orbit rather that an Earth satellite orbit.

The sun’s gravitational force on the moon is over twice the earth’s force. In a sense, the moon is a planet belonging to the sun instead of a moon belonging to the earth.

[riis]

This site (http://hotel04.ausys.se/pausch/comp/ppcomp.html) explains how to calculate the positions of planets, some comets and also the moon. You might want to check it in order to validate your model.
Good luck!