Orbits Definition and 498 Threads

Just a question about gravitation equations: Neglecting Earth's rotation, show that the energy needed to launch a satellite of mass m into circular orbit at altitude h is equal to: (\frac {GMm}{R})(\frac{R+2h}{2(R+h)}) Where R = the radius of the Earth and M = the mass of the Earth...

I was "Jenab" who wrote the "Transfer Orbits for Dummies: A Hillbilly Tutorial" that was stickied in this forum. I've written an improved procedure. The main improvements are: 1. A more straightforward calculation of the true anomaly at the non-apsidal endpoint of the intended trajectory...

Why do the elliptical orbits of the planets in our solar system rotate on a single plane.

I am new to this forum so do not know all the rules of posting. So please don't mind if I have missed something. I have not been doing any physics and stuff for many many years, but have been having lots of curiosity about stuff, so will dare to ask it here. I understand that orbits are due...

Does anyone know the equation for the helical path length around a torus? I need an analytical expression, not an approximation. Thanks

Homework Statement A satellite orbits Earth 4.0 x 10^{7} m away. The force of gravity between the satellite and Earth is 228 N. What is the mass of the satellite? Homework Equations Fg = (Gm1m2)/(r^{2}) The Attempt at a Solution...

theoretically by GMm/r^2 = mv^2/r, planets in a particular distance to the star will move in the corresponding velocity in order to maintain a circular orbit... either over speed they will pass by the star, or under speed they will be attracted towards the star in a spiral way So why are...

Homework Statement A satelite is placed in orbit 6.00x10^5 meters above the surface of Jupiter which has a mass of 1.90x10^27kg and has a radius of 7.14x10^7m. Find the orbital speed of the satelite Homework Equations V=sqroot(GM/r) The Attempt at a Solution First i added the...

Homework Statement A particular comet has an elliptical orbit. When closest to the Sun (perihelion) it is at a distance of 8.823 x 10^10 m and moves with a speed of 54.6 km/s. The greatest distance between this comet and the Sun (aphelion) is 5.902 x 10^12 m. Calculate its speed at...

we know that planets revolve in elliptical orbits but Why should planets revolve in elliptical orbits?

Hi i am doing a lab on circular orbits similar to this one: http://www.batesville.k12.in.us/physics/phynet/mechanics/Circular%20Motion/labs/cf_and_speed.htm I was wondering if someone can tell me what the main sources of error are, as well as the most significant source of error. Also, i...

Homework Statement A GPS satellite is put in a high circular orbit around the earth. The period of revolution is 8 hours. Calculate the radius r of the orbit, compared to the radius R of the earth. Homework Equations Rearth= 6.4 x 10^6 m mearth= 6 x...

I am sure this is a stupid question but can someone give me the equations for r(t) and theta(t) for an orbit an inverse square law (treating the central mass as being at rest). The books always seem to only give r(theta) i.e. the shape of the orbit but not the actual time evolution. Is it ever...

Homework Statement A spy satellite is in circular orbit around Earth. It makes one revolution in 6.02 hours. (Radius of the Earth=6.371 times 106 m) (a) How high above Earth's surface is the satellite? (b) What is the satellite's acceleration? Homework Equations v = sqrt(G*M Earth...

why does planets hav eliptical orbits (pls explain -not mathematically if posssible)

What type of orbit would be used for a scientific satellite which needs to take regular readings to measure changes in the concentration of ozone gas in the stratosphere over Antarctica?

I had no idea it took a month for the moon to orbit the earth. I thought it happened daily, and that's what gave us night. How do we get night?

When bohr gave his model of atom kepler's law already existed ... What made him think that the electrons revolve around the neucleus in circular orbits ? The obvious assumption that should have come to his mind looking at the analogy between the gravitational and electrostatic force should have...

i am a physics enthusiast studying general relativity on my own with the book: "Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity" by Edwin F. Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler. I am having the hardest time with the fourth chapter of the book and especially the 4th question in that...

If the planets are forced into circular orbits by inertia and gravity, why are the orbits of comets oval shaped? What keeps them from entering the sun.

If CarlB (or anyone else) wants to compare his recent results to the relativistic orbits used to make predictions for black hole inspirals by the people who work on LIGO, LISA, VIRGO, TAMA, GEO etc., they are readily available on the web at Living Reviews in Relativity...

The orbits of the Magellanic Clouds about the Milky Way Galaxy have apparently been determined, and the two dwarf irregular galaxies are now about as close as they will get to the MW in their 2.2 billion year orbit. See p. 42 of "Our Growing, Breathing Galaxy" by Wakker and Richter, Scientific...

What is the effect (if any) of the sun's movement around the galactic center in relation to planetary orbits?

OK, I'm sure I must be doing something wrong here, because I've run into a seeming contradiction. Please refer to the image I've attached below: an ellipse with the center and a focus marked. If there is a massive body at point P, then an object can orbit in the ellipse shown. If I know the...

for ions with more than one proton ie. He+, Li2+ and Be3+, doesn't the extra charge factor into the equation? because it seems only the elementary charge is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_radius" , hence rendering it independent of amount of positive charge present.

Can't really figure out where to start. Any help would be appreciated. Homework Statement A 575 kg satellite is in a circular orbit at an altitude of 550 km above the Earth's surface. Because of air friction, the satellite eventually falls to the Earth's surface, where it hits the ground with...

I remember that electrons exist in the probability cloud that corresponds to the orbital they reside in, and according to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, they can't share spin in the same orbital. According to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, when the wavefunction is collapsed...

Hi all, Why is it that the planets in our solar system seem to orbit relatively in the same plane? ( or is it a misconception ?) Why can't our planets orbit like this : http://www.steve.gb.com/images/science/planetary.png" Thx.

Let's consider the motion of a test particle in a central field. Is the Coulomb potential, 1/r, the only one that produces a periodic motion? If no, is there a condition for periodicity to occur? Thanks, Michel

This is the latest question I've been stuck on. The Bohr model of the hydrogen atom pictures the electron as a tiny particle moving in a circular orbit about a stationary proton. In the n=2 orbit, the distance from the proton to the electron is 21.16e-11 m , and the linear speed of the...

Two small asteroids orbit each other in circular orbits. The distance between the centers of the two asteroids is 35 m. The mass of the larger asteroid is 3 x 10 6 kg and the mass of the smaller asteroid is 1.2 x 10 5 kg. a. )What is the magnitude of the gravitational force of interaction...

With the success of my effort to write the orbits of the Schwarzschild metric in "Cartesian" coordinates, (see https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=126996 ) it is now time to compute the orbits for Painleve coordinates. When I'm done, I will have an applet that allows the computation...

I was reading and came across an article which stated that all the planets orbitted the sun elliptically while the Earth was the only planet to orbit the sun in a circular motion... Is this true? Also what technology did we use to figure this out?? Thanks Vtas25

My Java applet gravity simulator http://www.gaugegravity.com/testapplet/SweetGravity.html draws beautiful orbits, however the GR simulation is very badly broken as one can tell when comparing it with Newton at long distances. The source code is at...

Hi, I have a question on calculating the period of a planet where I know the gravity at the equator and at the pole. Here is the known information for the planet: Planet radius: 6502 km Planet mass: 4.71 \ast 10^{24} kg An explorer, who weighs 191 lbs on earth, stands at the equator of this...

Is gravity a sufficient force to explain the movement of the Kuiper Belt around the sun?

Why is it that for the most part, all orbiting planets in our solar system orbit together on the same 2D plane. The same can be asked for the disk shape of all of the galaxies. (sp everywhere) Thanks, -scott

Hi guys Im currently investigating planetary orbits in maths and one of our problems is to prove that Pluto spends a good deal of its time inside the orbit of Neptune. If anyone could help that would be great. Thanks Kyle

Problem: "Let G be a group of permutations of a set S. Prove that the orbits of the members of S constitute a partition of S." I'm a little hazy on how to start this proof. I started by writing down the definition of the Orbit of any element in S. I'm guessing, so correct me if I'm...

Greetings, A thought occurs about a (possibly) fundamental pattern in nature. Why are there several scales of magnitude in which a smaller body spins, while orbitting a larger body? Examples. 1) A galaxy like the Milky Way has an orbital momentum around the core of its Local Cluster...

How many time take to the electron to "Travel" from a lower orbit to a higher one? does it take the same time to travel to the next energy lever or to jump 3 or 4 when hitted by a more energetic photon?? Or it only takes a Planck time since it was hit by the photon?

Hello, considering a Planet 1 and a Planet 2, where 1 is extremely heavier than 2 and 2 is going in Planet 1's orbit. Two questions 1) howto get the expression v = - G m2 m1 / r 2) if we consider the energy < 0, we can get to an expression as v < sqrt (2GM2 / r) howto get Vx and Vy...

I am reasonably familiar with conventional elliptical orbits under gravity but how do they change as orbital velocities get very fast and start approaching the speed of light? let us initially neglect any energy losses due to gravitational radiation. I have been searching the web for some time...

attached is the effective potential plotted on E vs r graph. Discuss the nature of the orbits are the various values for r also V_{eff} (r) = - \frac{\alpha}{r} - br^2 - \frac{L^2}{2mr^2} where b << alpha L is the angular momentum and is not zero for R > R5 the orbit is a hyperbola...

i know that if a star having planets dies, and becomes a black hole the planets continue to revolve around the black hole. how is it possible when the black hole sucks everything??:confused:

There is a warming cooling pulse in Earth’s life exemplified by tracks left from ancient glaciers to deserts once flush with flora and fauna. When did all this occur and why? Here’s what I think: Moon orbits Earth, Earth orbits Sun, Sun orbits Milky Way, Milky Way orbits ? Each event takes...

Now, the conventional way of viewing the solar system is that all the planets orbit the sun, but since you can declare anything at rest in space, can't you just as easily say that the sun is orbiting the earth, since it will appear that way if you hold the Earth at rest?

How does one derive the total energy in an elliptic orbit: E= - \frac{GMm}{2a} where a is the semi-major axis? I did manage to get the result for the special case of circular orbit, as v = \sqrt{\frac{GM}{R}} But the problem is that I can't figure out a way to express v in an elliptic...

F=mv^2/r and Geosynchronouse orbits? Help Guys! I’m having a mental block in understanding why geostationary satellites stay in the same place and don’t change orbits or simply fall out of the sky. I may be using inaccurate information so please vet any and all suppositions I make here...

Is a Halo Orbit, such as the one employed by the SOHO spacecraft , a powered orbit (requires corrective burns)?. L1 is unstable, but everything I Google about Halo Orbits seem to suggest that the spacecraft happily orbits the L1 point in a Halo Orbit without corrective burns. Does it do...