And it's not just gravity, it's also electromagnetism: charge arrangements (i.e. ions) look like point charges at a distance, meaning you can neglect the electron orbital structure. Light sources act like point sources at a distance too.

A lot of the equations you learn in introductory physics rely on the higher moments vanishing.

- The planetary motion equations (Kepler's laws) assume gravity as a point source (the three body problem can be approximated by replacing two of the bodies with 1)

- E = mgh -> assumes a homogeneous gravitational field, which is a special case of gravitational monopole near an equipotential surfaced. And of course parabolic motion and pendula only work because this holds.

Sample papers:

* The Ballmer Peak: An Empirical Search

* Selected investigations into egg logic

* Are Centaurs Actually Half Human and Half Horse?

* Unconventional Commits: An Exploration Beyond the Mundane

* Use-After-Freemoji: How Custom Emoji Replacement Retroactively Corrupts User Intent

I assume this paper will be submitted for a conference - if not it should have been.

[0] Python, Monty (1975), Monty Python and the Holy Grail