Yet another approach to the inverse square law and to the circular character of the hodograph of Kepler orbits

Adel Alameh

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arXiv · 2106.01903

Yet another approach to the inverse square law and to the circular character of the hodograph of Kepler orbits

Adel Alameh

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Abstract

The law of centripetal force governing the motion of celestial bodies in eccentric conic sections, has been established and thoroughly investigated by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica. Yet its profound implications on the understanding of such motions is still evolving. In a paper to the royal academy of science, Sir Willian Hamilton demonstrated that this law underlies the circular character of hodographs for Kepler orbits. A fact which was the object of ulterior research and exploration by Richard Feynman and many other authors [1]. In effect, a minute examination of the geometry of elliptic trajectories, reveals interesting geometric properties and relations, altogether, combined with the law of conservation of angular momentum lead eventually, and without any recourse to dealing with differential equations, to the appearance of the equation of the trajectory and to the derivation of the equation of its corresponding hodograph. On this respect, and for the sake of founding the approach on solid basis, I devised two mathematical theorems; one concerning the existence of geometric means, and the other is related to establishing the parametric equation of an off-center circle, altogether compounded with other simple arguments ultimately give rise to the inverse square law of force that governs the motion of bodies in elliptic trajectories, as well as to the equation of their inherent circular hodographs.

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Adel Alameh. 2021-05-25. Yet another approach to the inverse square law and to the circular character of the hodograph of Kepler orbits. https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.01903

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