Piano man
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Hi,
I'm reading up on Kepler's problem at the moment, and there's a step in the book that I don't understand.
Starting off with the equation of the path \phi=\int\frac{M dr/r^2}{\sqrt{2m[E-U(r)]-M^2/r^2}}+\mbox{constant}
The step involves subbing in U=-\alpha/r, 'and effecting elementary integration' to get
\phi=\cos^{-1}\frac{(M/r)-(m\alpha/M)}{\sqrt{(2mE+\frac{m^2\alpha^2}{M^2}})}+\mbox{constant}
But it doesn't look very elementary to me
Does anyone have any idea?
Thanks.
I'm reading up on Kepler's problem at the moment, and there's a step in the book that I don't understand.
Starting off with the equation of the path \phi=\int\frac{M dr/r^2}{\sqrt{2m[E-U(r)]-M^2/r^2}}+\mbox{constant}
The step involves subbing in U=-\alpha/r, 'and effecting elementary integration' to get
\phi=\cos^{-1}\frac{(M/r)-(m\alpha/M)}{\sqrt{(2mE+\frac{m^2\alpha^2}{M^2}})}+\mbox{constant}
But it doesn't look very elementary to me

Does anyone have any idea?
Thanks.