KEPLERS LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION

Central forces
In classical mechanics, a central force is a force whose magnitude only depends on the distance r of the object from the origin and is directed along the line joining them: where F is the force, r is the position vector, |r| is its length and r is the corresponding unit vector, r = r/|r|, and F is a scalar function, F: [0, +) R. Equivalently, a force field is central if and only if it is spherically symmetric

Properties
A central force is a conservative field, that is, it can always be expressed as the negative gradient of a potential:

In a conservative field, the total mechanical energy (kinetic and potential) is conserved:

and in a central force field, so is the angular momentum:

because the torque exerted by the force is zero. As a consequence, the body moves on the plane perpendicular to the angular momentum vector and containing the origin.

Examples

Uniform circular motion Projectile motion Force due to gravitation Uniformly accelerated motion Electrostatic and Magnetostatic forces

Orbits

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body, for example the gravitational orbit of a planet around a star. A basic classification of orbits is Constant orbits or fixed points Periodic orbits Non-constant and non-periodic orbits

An orbit can fail to be closed in two interesting ways. It could be an asymptotically periodic orbit if it converges to a periodic orbit. Such orbits are not closed because they never truly repeat, but they become arbitrarily close to a repeating orbit. An orbit can also be chaotic. These orbits come arbitrarily close to the initial point, but fail to ever converge to a periodic orbit. They exhibit sensitive dependence on initial conditions, meaning that small differences in the initial value will cause large differences in future points of the orbit. [d2Veff/dr2]r=r =2ar0-4 (3+n)
0

Any circular orbit with r = r0 under any central force can satisfy the stability condition if n> -3

An Orbit is said to be stable if, when a slight perturbation is given to the initial position, the orbit is perturbed only slightly. Conditions for closure An orbit is said to be closed if the particle eventually retraces its path, or in other words, closure of an orbit requires the period of radial oscillations to match with that of the oscillations.

Planetary models

The Geocentric Model

The Geocentric Model, also known as the Ptolemaic system, is a theory that was developed by philosophers in Ancient Greece and was named after the philosopher Claudius Ptolemy who lived circa 90 to 168 A.D. It was developed to explain how the planets, the Sun, and even the stars orbit around the Earth. This model has been described in early Greek manuscripts also.

 The Ptolemaic system, the most well-known versions of the geocentric model, was a complex interaction of circles. Ptolemy believed that each planet orbited around a circle, which was termed an EPICYCLE. The epicycle orbits on a bigger circlethe DEFERENTaround the Earth. The center of the deferent is not the Earth, but a point near the midpoint of the distance between Earth and the equant. The EQUANT was Ptolemy's solution to some of the discrepancies that the geocentric model could not explain. The equant can be defined as the point at which an epicycle's center always seems to move at the same speed. When an epicenter was at a different point on its deferent, then the planet moved at a different speed. To further complicate matters, each planet had a different equant.

Heliocentric Model

The Heliocentric Model is a theory that places the Sun as the center of the universe, and the planets orbiting around it. The heliocentric model replaced geocentrism, which is the belief that the Earth is the center of the universe.

 Copernicus placed the Earth as the third planet from the Sun, and in his model, the Moon orbits the Earth not the Sun. Copernicus also hypothesized that the stars do NOT orbit the Earth; the Earth rotates, which makes the stars look like they have moved in the sky. Through the use of geometry, he was able to turn the heliocentric model from a philosophical hypothesis to a theory that did a very good job predicting the movement of the planets and other celestial bodies

VIDEO

Keplers laws of planetary motion

First Law
d+ e= const.

All planets orbit the sun in a path which is an ellipse, with the sun being located at one of the foci of that ellipse.
Symbolically: where (r, ) are heliocentric polar coordinates for the planet, p is the semi-latus rectum, and is the eccentricity.

Planet d Sun foci

VIDEO

Second Law
The radius vector sweeps equal areas in equal times.
Symbolically:

where is the "areal velocity". As the planet or satellite rises in its orbit, it slows down, then as it returns, it speeds up again. It moves fastest during its closest approach, at a point of the orbit called Perihelion for a planet ("Helios" is the Sun) and Perigee for an Earth satellite ("gee" from "geo", denoting Earth related.) and slowest at the point of furthest approach called Aphelion for a planet and Apogee for an Earth satellite.

C
O

B A

As an example, let the figure above represent the orbit of an Earth satellite, and let AB and CD be the portions of the orbit covered in 3 hours near apogee and near perigee, respectively. If then O is the Earth's center, the shaded areas OAB and OCD are equal. What it means, obviously, is that CD is much longer than AB, because near perigee the satellite moves much faster and it covers a much greater distance in 3 hours. The ratio of velocities equals the inverse of the ratio of distances. The smaller the distance, the faster the motion.
V1 / V2 = r2 / r1
VIDEO

Length Of Seasons
The main dividing points of the year are the two solstices-longest day in summer, longest night in winter--and the two equinoxes, when night and day are equal. These are the starting points of summer, winter, spring and fall, and it is generally assumed that they are equally spaced. However they are not. Earth is closest to the Sun-- at perihelion-- around January 4 and it is furthest from the Sun-- at the aphelion-- during the summer. Earth moves faster near perihelion and slower near aphelion, hence, winters last for a shorter time than summers.

Third Law
The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the mean distance from the Sun.
Symbolically: P 2 a3 where P is the orbital period of planet and a is the semi major axis of the orbit.

Interplanetary Trips
The simplest way to travel between the planets is to let the Sun's gravity do the work and take advantage of Kepler's laws of orbital motion. A fuel efficient way to travel is to put the spacecraft in orbit around the Sun with the Earth at one end of the orbit at launch and the other planet at the opposite end at arrival. These orbits are called ``Hohmann orbits'' after Walter Hohmann who developed the theory for transfer orbits. The spacecraft requires only an acceleration at the beginning of the trip and a deceleration at the end of the trip to put it in orbit around the other planet.

The Indian Influence

Aryabhata (476550), in his magnum opus Aryabhatiya, propounded a computational system based on a planetary model in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on its axis and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the Sun. Some have interpreted this to be a heliocentric model. He was also the first to discover that the planets follow elliptical orbits, on which he accurately calculated many astronomical constants, such as the periods of the planets, times of the solar and lunar eclipses, and the instantaneous motion of the Moon (expressed as a differential equation). Arabic translations of Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya were available from the 8th century, while Latin translations were available from the 13th century, before Copernicus had written De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, so it is possible that Aryabhata's work had an influence on Copernicus' ideas.

References
www.wikipedia.com http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/ kepler.html http://www.iki.rssi.ru/mirrors/stern/stargaze/K ep3laws.htm http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/~paulchar/sp/i mages/ptolemy.html Classical Mechanics- NC Rana, PS Joag

By: Smriti Vats