Newton's theorem of revolving orbits does not go to infinity. However, this conclusion holds only when two bodies are present (the two-body problem); the motion of three bodies or more acting under their mutual gravitation (the "n"-body problem) remained unsolved for centuries after Newton, although solutions to a few special cases were discovered. Newton proposed that the orbits of planets about the Sun are largely elliptical because the Sun's gravitation is dominant; to first approximation, the presence of the other planets can be ignored. By analogy, the elliptical orbit of the Moon about the Earth was dominated by the Earth's gravity; to first approximation, the
Speed of gravity radiation field or fluid. Changes in the motion of the attracting body are transmitted by some sort of waves. Therefore, the movements of the celestial bodies should be modified in the order "v/c", where "v" is the relative speed between the bodies and "c" is the speed of gravity. The effect of a finite speed of gravity goes to zero as "c" goes to infinity, but not as 1/"c" as it does in modern theories. This led Laplace to conclude that the speed of gravitational interactions is at least 7×10 times the speed of light. This velocity was used by