Theory of Planetary Motion

Description
Planetary motion has been analyzed in detail. It begins with general planetary motion, finding its kinetic energy, radius of orbit etc. The equation of motion is derived using polar co-ordinates and different types of orbits like elliptical, parabolic, circular are discussed. A graph for effective potential energy function vs radius shows radius values for two energies corresponding to elliptic and circular orbits.In another diagram different orbital path for same angular momentum is shown.A table showinf the planetary data is very informative. Some more information about Kepler's law has been added.

Prof. Stanley Kowalski, Physics 8.01 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare),http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed Aug 4th,2011). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA: http://ocw.mit.edu/terms/#cc