- #1
DaviBones
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Homework Statement
A comet passes the sun at it's perihelion 5*1010 meters going 1*105 meters/second. Take the mass of the sun to be 2*1030.
a.) Will the comet return to this point? If so, how long until that happens?
b.) How long will it take to travel from perihelion to 60 degrees further along it's orbit?
Homework Equations
[itex]F_{g}=\frac{-GMm}{r^{2}}[/itex]
[itex]KE=\frac{1}{2}mv^{2}[/itex]
[itex]PE=\frac{-GMm}{r}[/itex]
[itex]\omega=\frac{v}{r}[/itex]
The Attempt at a Solution
Part a was easy. I summed the KE and PE and it was positive. I concluded that the velocity was great enough to escape orbit.
Part b, I have no clue how to approach. I've nothing in my arsenal that deals with degrees along an orbit besides perhaps conservation of angular momentum but I have been thinking about this for a couple hours now and I'm totally stumped on where to even begin. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.