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    The problem states that the two spheres are initially not in contact, but: For the first case, we can ignore the 0-valued Y and Z components of position and acceleration so that we have a 1-D problem where X1=0 and x2=-1. So, at time=0, the distance dc between the centers of the two spheres is 1. However, the distance between the two sphere's outer surfaces is dc MINUS (r1+r2), or -2. Thus, the two spheres initially overlap (in fact, sphere 2 contains sphere 1). This contradicts the problem statement. Am I missing something?