Recent content by h4tt3n

Hello, I'm looking for a way to determine wether one object is in a closed elliptical orbit around another based on their mass and state vectors. For instance, if looking at the state vectors of the distant irreguar Jupiter-moon Sinope and of an asteroid passing by Jupiter at the roughly same...

To add two or more vectors, just add their x and y components respectively. Simple as that. Your notation seems odd, though.

Let's change the experiment a little to make the understanding easier. Imagine you're on a train running straight ahead at an even speed. If you jump, why doesn't the train move forward under your feet? Cheers, Mike

nevermind, I figured it out.

Hello everyone, During the last few days I've been working to solve a "small" problem I hope someone here might be better at than I am. I'm writing a function that returns the state vectors of an orbiting body of neglible mass based on the orbital elements semimajor axis, semiminor axis...

Actually, you can calculate the entire elliptical orbit from just the state vectors, ie. the position and velocity vectors. I can't remember how I did it just now, but a few years ago I made a 2d gravitational simulation program which did just that. Cheers, Mike

Hello everyone, My questions and link to my webpage is posted over at the original science forums. Please take a look: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36161 Cheers, Michael

Well, as an attempt to add some relevance to this thread we could discuss wether the Earths gravitational pull actually was noticeable weaker - say - 200 million years ago due to the simple fact that our planet gains tonnes of mass every day. I think as a rough eatimate it is generally accepted...

We'd have to go outside in space suits and dig out frozen oxygen from the ground. As the atmosphere's temperature lowers, it will condense and fall down as a thick layer of snow. First water, then carbon dioxide, then nitrogen and - lucky for us - oxygen at last. Regarding the need for a...

Hello everyone, first post on this forum... Recently I've been trying to understand how ocean currents work from a general perspective. While studying, an intrigueing question popped up in my mind, and I haven't been able to let it go unanswered. It is simply: If the Earth was a...