This document provides a proof of Kepler's first law of planetary motion from Newtonian dynamics. It shows that:
1) Taking the total energy and angular momentum equations and manipulating them allows rewriting the radial component of velocity as a function of the angular variable and constants.
2) With further substitutions of the semi-latus rectum and eccentricity, this radial velocity equation can be rewritten in the form of an ellipse.
3) Therefore, Newton's laws of motion and gravitation imply that a planet orbiting a star will follow an elliptical path with the star at one focus, proving Kepler's first law.
This document provides a proof of Kepler's first law of planetary motion from Newtonian dynamics. It shows that:
1) Taking the total energy and angular momentum equations and manipulating them allows rewriting the radial component of velocity as a function of the angular variable and constants.
2) With further substitutions of the semi-latus rectum and eccentricity, this radial velocity equation can be rewritten in the form of an ellipse.
3) Therefore, Newton's laws of motion and gravitation imply that a planet orbiting a star will follow an elliptical path with the star at one focus, proving Kepler's first law.
This document provides a proof of Kepler's first law of planetary motion from Newtonian dynamics. It shows that:
1) Taking the total energy and angular momentum equations and manipulating them allows rewriting the radial component of velocity as a function of the angular variable and constants.
2) With further substitutions of the semi-latus rectum and eccentricity, this radial velocity equation can be rewritten in the form of an ellipse.
3) Therefore, Newton's laws of motion and gravitation imply that a planet orbiting a star will follow an elliptical path with the star at one focus, proving Kepler's first law.
This document provides a proof of Kepler's first law of planetary motion from Newtonian dynamics. It shows that:
1) Taking the total energy and angular momentum equations and manipulating them allows rewriting the radial component of velocity as a function of the angular variable and constants.
2) With further substitutions of the semi-latus rectum and eccentricity, this radial velocity equation can be rewritten in the form of an ellipse.
3) Therefore, Newton's laws of motion and gravitation imply that a planet orbiting a star will follow an elliptical path with the star at one focus, proving Kepler's first law.
Proof of Kepler’s first law from Newtonian dynamics
A planet orbits the Sun in an ellipse, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse. It would be a pity to have a course on dynamical as- as r P is the component of v perpendicular to r. Now tronomy and not at least see a proof of Kelper’s first make the substitution D 1=r, so that P D L2 =m. law from Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation. We can evaluate as Again, this proof is not examinable! It is pre- L 2 Z D dt (4) sented here purely to satisfy curiosity and for your en- m tertainment. L 2 dt Z D d (5) m d rP m 1 d but rP D (6) P 2 dt r Z L r so D d: (7) m rP Rearranging equation 2 we can see that rP is M 2E L2 2 r0 rP 2 D C 2GM : (8) m m2 Now a further manipulation. We make the substitu- tions L2 r0 D (9) GM m2 Figure 1: The geometry used in the proof. 2Er0 e2 D 1 C : (10) GM m Take a mass m in a general elliptical orbit around a Clearly, both r0 and e are constants. We choose them much more massive body M . When the separation of in this way so that our answer is immediately recog- the masses is r, the total energy of the orbit is nisable as an ellipse – it is not an obvious substitution at this stage! After a little manipulation, equation 8 1 2 GM m E D mv ; (1) can be written as " 2 r #1=2 L e2 1 2
where v is the speed of the orbiting mass and G the rP D : (11) m r02 r0 constant of gravitation. The velocity of m has two components: a radial component equal to dr=dt (writ- Substituting Z this into equation 7 we get ten rP ) and a component perpendicular to r which is 1 D p d (12) the ‘circular’ component of the velocity, equal to r! .e=r0 / 2 . 1=r0 /2 where ! .D P / is the instantaneous angular velocity 1 1=r0 of the body, with as shown in the diagram. Because D cos : (13) e=r0 these components are orthogonal, the square of the to- This can be rearranged to give tal velocity equals the sum of the squares of these com- ponents. We can now write this energy equation in po- r D r0 =.1 C e cos /; (14) lar coordinates: which is the equation of an ellipse in polar coordinates, 1 GM m with the origin at a focus. We can now identify r0 as ED m.rP 2 C r 2 P 2 / :(2) the semi-latus rectum of the ellipse and e as its eccen- 2 r tricity. Similarly, we can write the angular momentum of m as GW L D mr ;2P (3) 2016