Ellipses and their foci have a lot of useful properties. It so happens that an orbiting object traces out an ellipse, with the thing it orbits around at one of the focuses. Coincidence? Yes. I can’t find a good intuitive reason why orbits are elliptical. In fact, I...
However, because the Earth’s orbit is elliptical, the angle we cover every day in our orbit changes. When we’re farther, the angle doesn’t change as fast, and the solar time gets a little ahead of standard time. When we’re closer, the angle changes faster and...
Why are galaxies different shapes? How do the orbits of comets differ from planetary orbits? How are comets, asteroids, and meteors different? How are supernovae involved in new planet formation? Why does an elliptical galaxy look like one giant star? Why are there comets in the Oort cloud...
The second of Newton's laws that apply to understanding gravity in physics resulted from Newton puzzling through another physicist's findings. He was trying to explain why the solar system's planets have elliptical orbits rather than circular orbits, as observed and mathematically described by Johann...
Comets are large conglomerations of rock and ice that orbit the sun. Sometimes they are visible from earth. One of the most famous of these is Halley's comet, which appears every 76 years. Comet Orbits:The orbits of comets are generally highly elliptical, sometimes only coming back into ...
The reason is, of course, gravity, the only force that affects its motion (neglecting air resistance) after it is projected. However, what we are essentially asking is, why does gravity force it to trace a parabola? Kepler knew that the planets orbited the Sun in an ellipse, but he did...
Sommerfeld postulated elliptical orbits that provided greater stability to the atoms, leading to the Bohr鈥揝ommerfeld model. A study designed to evaluate the presentation of the Bohr鈥揝ommerfeld model in general chemistry textbooks (published in Italy and the USA) revealed that very few presented...
One of the tests is on orbital deformation. It should tell us how much deviation should be present in elliptical orbits due to relativistic effects. The second test is about finding a precession, namely the Lense-Thirring precession, which has not been seen in binary neutron stars to date. ...
Why do metal poor stars have the most elliptical orbits? From where do they obtain their metals? Why does the amplitude of light increase when light travels from a denser to a rarer medium? Why are there six flavors of leptons and quarks? Why it is difficult to detect neutrinos...
you could jump further from the tower before you hit the ground. If you could run as fast as the space shuttle and ISS orbits the Earth, at 28,160 km/h (17,500 mph), the arc of your jump would make a circle around the Earth. You would be in orbit and weightless. You would be...