A cannonball was fired from the surface of Earth with a velocity of 1 2 s k m perpendicular to the surface of Earth.
If e 1 is the eccentricity of the conic section formed by it's orbit. Find ⌊ 1 0 e 1 ⌋
Assume that :
M a s s o f E a r t h ( M ⊕ ) = 5 . 9 7 2 × 1 0 2 4 K g
R a d i u s o f E a r t h ( R ⊕ ) = 6 . 3 7 1 × 1 0 6 m
U n i v e r s a l G r a v i t a t i o n a l C o n s t a n t ( G ) = 6 . 6 7 4 3 × 1 0 − 1 1 N K g 2 m 2
⌊ ⋅ ⌋ is the floor function
Only Gravitational forces are involved
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Bonus Problem : Generalize the case for any orbiting object with negligible size which was launched with a velocity v , at a distance of r from a planet and that we know (only) the following values :
Universal Gravitational Constant
Mass of planet
r , ∣ v ∣
And angle between v and the line joining the center of the planet and the orbiting object
Also assume that mass of the orbiting object is very - very smaller than the mass of the planet.
Let the center of the earch have the coordinates ( 0 , 0 ) . The X axis points horizontally to the right while the Y axis points vertically up. The cannonball is projected tangentially to the surface of the earth and not perpendicular to the surface of the earth. Please edit the problem statement. At any general time t , let the position vector of the ball with respect to the origin be:
r = x i ^ + y j ^ + z k ^
Now, applying Newton's law of gravitation leads to:
d t 2 d 2 r = − ∣ r ∣ 3 G M r
r ( 0 ) = R j ^ d t d r ( 0 ) = v o i ^
Let us introduce a change of variables as such:
p = R r
This transforms the equations of motion to:
d t 2 d 2 p = − R 3 G M ( ∣ p ∣ 3 p )
Let us introduce a new time scale t 1 such that:
t = λ t 1
⟹ d t d p = d t 1 d p d t d t 1 d t d p = λ 1 d t 1 d p
Now:
d t 2 d 2 p = d t d ( d t d p ) = d t d ( λ 1 d t 1 d p ) = d t 1 d ( λ 1 d t 1 d p ) d t d t 1 ⟹ d t 2 d 2 p = λ 2 1 d t 1 2 d 2 p
Plugging this into the equation of motion leads to:
d t 2 d 2 p = − R 3 G M ( ∣ p ∣ 3 p ) λ 2 1 d t 1 2 d 2 p = − R 3 G M ( ∣ p ∣ 3 p )
Taking:
λ 2 = G M R 3
converts the equation of motion to:
d t 1 2 d 2 p = − ( ∣ p ∣ 3 p )
The initial conditions also need to be scaled appropriately, which are originally:
r ( 0 ) = R j ^ d t d r ( 0 ) = v o i ^
⟹ p ( 0 ) = 1 j ^ ⟹ d t d r ( 0 ) = R d t d p ( 0 ) = v o i ^ ⟹ d t d p ( 0 ) = R v o i ^ ⟹ d t d p ( 0 ) = λ 1 d t 1 d p ( 0 ) = R v o i ^ ⟹ d t 1 d p ( 0 ) = G M R 3 ( R v o ) i ^
Finally, the rescaled equation of motion is:
d t 1 2 d 2 p = − ( ∣ p ∣ 3 p ) p ( 0 ) = 1 j ^ d t 1 d p ( 0 ) = G M R 3 ( R v o ) i ^
This set of ODEs has been solved numerically using a script of code which will be attached to the end of this solution.
The resulting trajectory is a hyperbola. This is established by the fact that the trajectory becomes a straight line as it moves further away from the earth. This corresponds to the trajectory converging to the asymptote of the hyperbola. The magnitude of the slope of the asymptote is:
m = ∣ b a ∣ \]
Where a and b are the semi axes of the hyperbola. The eccentricity of the hyperbola is:
e = 1 + m 2 1 ≈ 1 . 3
The required answer is 1 3 . The scrip of code created on OCTAVE is as follows.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 |
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Good but a big solution
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Thank you. Indeed, the solution is large. Understandably so, because my solution uses no pre derived results/formulas. It only uses Newton's law of gravitation as prior knowledge (apart from the results relevant to the geometry of a hyperbola). Besides, I do not know how to analytically solve the resulting system of differential equations, so I had to introduce new length and time scales to make the problem numerically well conditioned.
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But you also used Kepler's first law, since you must assume that the curve is a conic section before your following argument:
"The resulting trajectory is a hyperbola. This is established by the fact that the trajectory becomes a straight line as it moves further away from the earth"
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@Zakir Husain – Actually, I have not. I used the fact that the curve is a conic. To establish that the trajectory eventually becomes a straight line, I ran the simulation for different durations of scaled time. I made sure that the durations are sufficiently large, by trial and error. For each simulation, I calculated the slope of the line as per line 54 of my code. For different large durations, I could see that the slope does not change (barely changes). The only conic that shows such asymptotic behaviour is a hyperbola.
I did not include these intermediate steps that led me to this conclusion. But by no means have I directly invoked Kepler's first law. I have tried to solve this using the first principle alone. And of course with numerics. I am trying by myself to see how this problem can be tackled analytically using Lagrangian mechanics. I may update my solution or post a follow up problem depending on whether and how I figure it out.
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@Karan Chatrath – The fact that the curve is conic this is what we call modified version of Kepler's first law :
" A l l b o d i e s m o v i n g a r o u n d a l a r g e m a s s f o r m s o r b i t w h i c h a r e c o n i c s e c t i o n s . "
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@Zakir Husain – Okay, I see your point. My solution indeed does not prove that the trajectory is a conic. It exploits the fact that it is.
Looking forward to the note. I'll try and reproduce the results using my approach.
@Karan Chatrath – I am going to post a note (maybe soon) for the bonus problem (general case)
@Karan Chatrath I am not able to see the option for uploading the problem.Can you see that ?? . They said till 2 July?
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Even I do not see that option anymore.
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@Karan Chatrath
That was such a good feature just to share solution and problems to the people living around the world .
And that was the best feature .
It is like a human body without heart.
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I f v e s c a p e i s t h e e s c a p e v e l o c i t y a t t h e l a u n c h i n g s i t e ⇒ v e s c a p e = 2 R ⊕ G M ⊕ ≈ 1 . 1 1 8 6 × 1 0 4 m s − 1 ⇒ v > v e s c a p e . . . . . . . . . . . [ 1 ] ( v = 1 . 2 × 1 0 4 m s − 1 ) F r o m K e p l e r ′ s f i r s t l a w w e k n o w t h a t t h e s h a p e o f t h e o r b i t c a n b e d e s c r i b e d b y t h e f o l l o w i n g p o l a r e q u a t i o n : r = 1 + e 1 cos θ l . . . . . . . . . . [ 2 ] i f l = p q 2 , e 1 = 1 − p 2 q 2 t h e n f r o m h e r e w e k n o w t h a t p = 2 G M ⊕ − R ⊕ v 2 R ⊕ G M ⊕ ≈ − 2 . 1 1 1 8 × 1 0 7 m A l s o w e k n o w t h a t i n [ 2 ] R ⊕ = p + p 2 − q 2 q 2 ⇒ q 4 − q 2 ( 2 p R ⊕ − R ⊕ 2 ) = 0 ∵ q 2 = 0 ⟺ e 1 = 1 ⟺ v = v e s c a p e ∴ [ 1 ] ⇒ q 2 = 2 p R ⊕ − R ⊕ 2 ≈ − 3 . 0 9 7 × 1 0 1 4 m 2 ⇒ e 1 = 1 − p 2 q 2 ≈ 1 . 3 0 1 6 ⇒ ⌊ 1 0 e 1 ⌋ = ⌊ 1 3 . 0 1 6 ⌋ = 1 3