What is the significance of the foci in gravitational orbits?

  • #1
MattWakes
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hey everyone, this is a qualitative question on gravitational orbits:

I was going through questions in which the trajectory of the orbiting body is determined based upon the eccentricity of the orbit, e.g. 0<Ecc<1, ellipses, Ecc=1, parabola, Ecc>1, hyperbola. I did the math and found out what the foci where for each case. But I would very much like to know, what is the physical meaning of these foci? Yes, they are points such that the sum of distances from a point on the circumference of trajectory to each focus is a constant. But what do they really mean, in terms of forces or whatever?

Okay, thanks!
 
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  • #2
MattWakes said:
Yes, they are points such that the sum of distances from a point on the circumference of trajectory to each focus is a constant.
As a side point, this is true only for the ellipse, not the parabola or the hyperbola.
 
  • #3
Only one focus counts.
Here is the basic data sheet, you might get something from it.
 

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