Safe domain and elementary geometry

DOI10.1088/0143-0807/25/6/016MaRDI QIDQ4655830zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Jean-Marc Richard

Publication date 8 March 2005

Published in European Journal of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0410034

zbMATH Keywords

projectileharmonic potentialKepler motionconstant force

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Dynamics of a system of particles, including celestial mechanics (70F99)

Abstract: A classical problem of mechanics involves a projectile fired from a given point with a given velocity whose direction is varied. This results in a family of trajectories whose envelope defines the border of a 'safe' domain. In the simple cases of a constant force, harmonic potential and Kepler or Coulomb motion, the trajectories are conic curves whose envelope in a plane is another conic section which can be derived either by simple calculus or by geometrical considerations. The case of harmonic forces reveals a subtle property of the maximal sum of distances within an ellipse.

Cited in

(7)

• Explicit solution of the focus locus problem for the harmonic oscillator orbits in the plane
• On the elliptic locus of a family of projectiles
• The envelope of projectile trajectories
• Parallelograms inscribed in a pair of confocal ellipses
• A shadow of the repulsive Rutherford scattering in the laboratory frame
• Safe domain for projectile trajectories in a medium with quadratic drag force
• Revisiting Kepler: new symmetries of an old problem

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