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t. e. In classical mechanics, the central-force problem is to determine the motion of a particle in a single central potential field. A central force is a force (possibly negative) that points from the particle directly towards a fixed point in space, the center, and whose magnitude only depends on the distance of the object to the center.
t. e. A centripetal force (from Latin centrum, "center" and petere, "to seek" [1]) is a force that makes a body follow a curved path. The direction of the centripetal force is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous center of curvature of the path. Isaac Newton described it as "a force by ...
Kepler problem. In classical mechanics, the Kepler problem is a special case of the two-body problem, in which the two bodies interact by a central force that varies in strength as the inverse square of the distance between them. The force may be either attractive or repulsive. The problem is to find the position or speed of the two bodies over ...
Exact solutions of classical central-force problems. In the classical central-force problem of classical mechanics, some potential energy functions produce motions or orbits that can be expressed in terms of well-known functions, such as the trigonometric functions and elliptic functions. This article describes these functions and the ...
Newton's theorem simplifies orbital problems in classical mechanics by eliminating inverse-cube forces from consideration. The radial and angular motions, r (t) and θ1 (t), can be calculated without the inverse-cube force; afterwards, its effect can be calculated by multiplying the angular speed of the particle.
In particular, if Cartesian coordinates are chosen, the centrifugal force disappears, and the formulation involves only the central force itself, which provides the centripetal force for a curved motion. This viewpoint, that fictitious forces originate in the choice of coordinates, often is expressed by users of the Lagrangian method.
The Hamilton–Jacobi equation is a first-order, non-linear partial differential equation. for a system of particles at coordinates . The function is the system's Hamiltonian giving the system's energy. The solution of the equation is the action functional, , [4] called Hamilton's principal function in older textbooks.
v. t. e. The two-body problem in general relativity (or relativistic two-body problem) is the determination of the motion and gravitational field of two bodies as described by the field equations of general relativity. Solving the Kepler problem is essential to calculate the bending of light by gravity and the motion of a planet orbiting its sun.