The computer BESK and an early attempt to simulate galactic dynamics
@article{Lindblad2015TheCB, title={The computer BESK and an early attempt to simulate galactic dynamics}, author={Per Olof Lindblad}, journal={arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics}, year={2015} }
The first N-body simulation of interacting galaxies, even producing spiral arms, was performed by Erik Holmberg in Lund (1941), not with a numerical computer, but by his arrangement of movable light-bulbs and photocells to measure the luminosity at each bulb and thereby estimate the gravitational force. A decade later, and with the arrival of the first programable computers, computations of galactic dynamics were performed, which were later transferred into a N-body simulation movie. I present…