JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

School of Physical Sciences

PS412: Classical Mechanics

Instructor: R Ramaswamy Monsoon Semester 2017

Tutorial 4 Due date: Friday, September 22

This tutorial is related to the Kepler equation,

= t + e sin . (1)

FIG. 1: I took this figure of a satellite-Earth two-body system from the net. In the above, v
and E in the notation we have been using in class.

1. If
p
r= = a(1 e cos ),
1 + e cos
show that  

2 1+e
tan = tan2 .
2 1e 2

2. Define = 2/T , where the period of an orbit is (see Keplers third law)
r
1
T = 2a3/2 .
k

1
 By integrating the equation for r, show that
r Z r
1 rdr
t= p ,
2k 0 r r2 /2a a(1 e2 )/2

from which you should be able to get

r Z
a3
t= (1 e cos )d.
k 0

Keplers equation follows upon integration.

3. Taking derivatives with respect to the variable = t, show that

d 1 X
= = Cm cos m,
d 1 e cos m=

where the second term comes from the realization that is periodic in . Now, given
the identity Z 2
1
Jm (em) = cos m( e sin )d
2 0

where Jm is the Bessel function of order m, finally obtain the solution for the eccentric
anomaly,

X Jm (em)
= t + 2 sin mt
m=1
m
which is convergent for eccentricity e < 0.6627. . . .