Simulation of the Magellanic Stream to estimate the total mass of the Milky Way

The second pair of values fit our determinations of Vc and MG from the dynamics of the Local Group of galaxies 18. This paper summarizes results from some 200 trial initial conditions with the Magellanic Clouds modelled as a flat disk of test particles circulating around a single spherical mass. An understanding of this problem which has five intrinsic dimensionless parameters is necessary to get some insight into the problem in which both Magellanic Clouds are modelled as individual masses. The latter problem has 14 dimensionless parameters.