Reduced mass

In physics, reduced mass is a measure of the effective inertial mass of a system with two or more particles when the particles are interacting with each other. Reduced mass allows the two-body problem to be solved as if it were a one-body problem. Note, however, that the mass determining the gravitational force is not reduced. In the computation, one mass can be replaced with the reduced mass, if this is compensated by replacing the other mass with the sum of both masses. The reduced mass is frequently denoted by ${\displaystyle \mu }$ (mu), although the standard gravitational parameter is also denoted by ${\displaystyle \mu }$ (as are a number of other physical quantities). It has the dimensions of mass, and SI unit kg.

Reduced mass is particularly useful in classical mechanics.