A1 Dynamical Astronomy

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