Recent content by H. Leone

This is fascinating stuff. It's pretty clear to me that I've got a lot more to learn in way of calculus and mechanics. Thank you all for the responses!

Oh, right. I don't know what I was thinking. So for the conservation of energy, that equation would look more like: 1/2 mv12 + 1/2 Mv22 - GMm/ r = c (constant) (I'm including the kinetic energies of both masses because gravitational potential energy is written in terms of M and m ) The problem...

Oh neat! I hadn't considered conservation of energy. So something like this? 1/2 mv2 = -GMm / r I'm cancelling out the mass (m) out from both sides because I can, but I don't know if I should. 1/2 v2 = -GM/r let k = -GM v = (2k/r)0.5 Where v is presumably dr/dt? In your second method you seem...

As far as stating the equation, I honestly can't say if I've done it correctly. The question is a matter of personal interest and didn't come from any textbook. I apologise for that. I just wanted to find a relationship between the time elapsed and the distance between two unbound masses. I find...

Homework Statement Consider two masses of variable magnitude (M m) that are separated by a distance ( r ). Both masses are free to move. Calculate dr/dt. Homework Equations (See below) The Attempt at a Solution F = GMm / r2 a = Gm / r2 let k = Gm da/dr = -2kr-3 dr/da = (-2k)-1 r3 dr/da *...