Phase-Space Orbits for the Kepler Problem on Constant Energy Surfaces

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Trajectories for the Kepler two-body problem are plotted on a constant-energy surface in reduced phase space. The variables are the coordinates , and the velocity components , . The four initial values are selected by sliders. This Demonstration helps in understanding the relationship between energy and stable orbits. The contour plots take a few seconds to load for some sets of initial conditions.

Contributed by: Erik Imathiu-Jones and Justin Austin (August 2017)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA


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