Developing Kepler's Law of OrbitsLaw of Orbits: two masses orbiting each other in bound orbits under the influence of the law of gravity will follow elliptical orbits about the center of mass of the two-body system.
The individual vector coordinates of the masses can be expressed in terms of the reduced mass: Kepler's Laws depend upon the principle of conservation of angular momentum, and since these are inherently vector quantities, the angular momentum is expressed in terms of vector products. The angular momentum of the two body system can be expressed in terms of their relative velocity and the reduced mass of the system. Starting with the individual angular momenta, the angular momentum of the system L can be expressed as follows: This provides the necessary framework for showing that angular momentum is conserved for an orbiting planet or a member of a binary star system. This is done by showing that the derivative of the angular momentum is zero for the case where the force of attraction acts along the line between the two bodies. This requires the expression for the derivative of a product of functions. Using the expression for angular momentum L obtained above:
The determination that the motion of both masses in a bound binary system execute elliptical orbits about a focus point at the center of mass of the system requires the analysis of the force and angular momentum of the system. The angular momentum L of the system can be expressed as In this expression, the unit vectors in the r direction have been introduced because both the magnitude of r and its direction can change. Note that one term drops out of the vector product expression because it contains the vector product of the unit vector and itself and is therefore zero. The acceleration of the reduced mass is given by where M is the total mass of the system. As a strategy for obtaining an expression for r, the following evaluation is made: where the facts that the scalar product of two unit vectors is equal to 1 and the scalar product of the unit vector and its derivative is equal to 0 are used in addition to the vector identity. Continuing a strategy directed toward finding an expression for radius vector r in terms of the angular momentum, the above expression is modified so that it is an equality of two derivatives. The rule for differentiation of a product is used along with the fact that dL/dt=0 (conservation of angular momentum). Now integrating the two differential quantities gives where we can argue that the vector constant of integration D must be in the plane of the orbit since the other two quantities lie in that plane. To introduce the radius vector r into this expression the following procedure with a vector identity is followed. Using the final expression for angular momentum L from above, this can be put in the form The final step in showing that this is the expression for a conic section orbit is to define e=D/GMμ so that the radius r becomes This form for the equation of a conic section expresses it in terms of the angular momentum L, the eccentricity e, and the angle θ measured from the perihelion. For e<1 this is the form of an ellipse and can be expressed in terms of the semimajor axis a. Setting these two expressions equal to each other gives an expression for the angular momentum L
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Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts Carroll & Ostlie Sec 2.3 | ||||||||
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Developing Kepler's Law of Areas
The velocity is in the plane of the ellipse and can be divided into radial and angular components: |
Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts Carroll & Ostlie Sec 2.3 | ||
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Development of The Law of PeriodsLaw of Periods: The Law of Areas shows that the rate of change of area is proportional to the angular momentum L, and the development of the Law of Orbits showed that the angular momentum is a constant for the orbit. That rate of change of area can be integrated over time to obtain the period P. This establishes Kepler's Law of Periods. In this form it is useful for calculation of the orbital period of moons or other binary orbits like those of binary stars. |
Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts Carroll & Ostlie Sec 2.3 | ||
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