Dr.

Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

C2T (Mechanics)
Topic – Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)

We have already discussed part 1 of this e-report.

Now let us continue part 2 of it.

Central Force Motion:

In this e-report we apply Newtonian Physics to the general problem of a central
force motion. A central force between two bodies (or particles) is a radial force
that depends only on the distance ( ) between the bodies and it is always
directed along the line joining them. Mathematically this force can be expressed
as

where is any function of the distance between the particles and is

a unit vector along the line of centres. We shall start by looking at some of the
general features of a system of two particles interacting with a central force of
the form given above.

Fig. 1

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

Reduction of Two-body Problem into One-body Problem. Let us consider an

isolated system consisting of two particles interacting under a central force
given by . The masses of the particles are and and their
position vectors are and . According to Fig. 1, we have the separation
vector as

and .

Therefore, the equations of motion of the two particles are

From our definition of , the force is attractive for and repulsive for
. The equations of motion are coupled together by , as the behaviour
of and depends on . Therefore, these equations cannot be
solved directly, unless we decouple them. The decoupling is done by replacing
the original coordinates and by the separation vector and the centre of
mass vector defined as

and .

If there is no external force, the equation of motion for is trivial as

This equation has a simple solution . The constant vectors

and depend on the choice of coordinate system and the initial conditions. We
therefore, find that the centre of mass under a central force field moves at a
uniform velocity.

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

Now the equation for turns out to be like the equation of motion of a single
particle and has a straightforward solution. By some elementary algebra, we
find from the equations of motion

or

or

Reduced Mass. Here we define as the reduced mass of the two

particles. Using this definition, we write

The above equation is identical to the equation of motion for a single particle of
mass acted on by a force . So, no trace of the two-body problem
remains. The two-body problem has been transformed or reduced to a one-body
problem.

Consequences of the Central Force:

Solving the vector equation of motion for depends on the

particular form of , but some properties of central force motion hold true in
general regardless of the form of . Constraints imposed by the conservation
laws of energy and momentum provide a major step toward finding the
complete solution. In this e-report we shall see how to use conservation laws to
identify some consequences of the central force problems and the solutions.

(a) Conservation of Angular Momentum. We will show now that the angular
momentum ( ) is constant for central force motion. for the motion is defined
as

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

or

But is nothing but the force itself . So, we get ,

since and are directed along the same direction.

Since, , therefore is independent of time and a constant of motion under

central force field.

Fig. 2

(b) Confinement of Motion in a Plane. As a proof, , so it follows

that is always perpendicular to by the properties of the cross product.
Because is a constant of motion, it is fixed in a particular direction. Therefore,
the plane of the motion perpendicular to , is also fixed, and can only move in
a plane perpendicular to (as shown in Fig. 2).

Introducing plane polar coordinates , in the plane of motion, the equation of

motion becomes

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

In particular, the 2nd equation a consequence of the fact that a central force has
no tangential component, only radial component is present.

(c) Law of Equal Area. We need to prove that the rate at which area is swept
out is constant, a result that leads directly to Kepler’s law of equal areas. In
other way, it is said that the areal velocity is constant.

Fig. 3

The magnitude of the angular momentum is constant, and is given by

. We consider the position of the particle at and ,
when its polar coordinates are ( , ) and ( , ) respectively. The area
swept out is shown in Fig. 3. For small values of , the area is
approximately equal to the area of a triangle with base and altitude ,
as shown. So,

Therefore, the rate at which area is swept out or the areal velocity is

or constant.

The areas swept out by are the same for equal time intervals. The law of equal
areas holds for any central force and for both closed and open orbits. For the
solar system, a planetary orbit is an example of a closed orbit. An open orbit

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

would be like the orbit of a comet entering the solar system, sweeping around
the sun, and heading back out to space, never to return.

Calculation of the Total Energy:

The kinetic energy ( ) of a particle or body under a central force is given by

where is the velocity of the body evaluated as .

Therefore the velocity has both the radial component and the tangential
component as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

So,

It can be shown that all central forces are conservative, so we can associate a
potential energy with as

Without any loss of generality, we can assume the reference point to be at

infinity, where the potential energy can be assumed to be zero. Therefore,
we obtain .

From the work–energy theorem, we write

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

where , the total mechanical energy, is constant. We can eliminate from the
previous equation by using the relation and we get

Effective Potential Energy. This equation looks like the energy equation for a
particle moving in one dimension, as all reference to is gone. We can go
further by introducing

such that . is called the effective potential energy (or

effective potential). differs from the true potential energy by the term
, called the centrifugal potential energy. Introducing the effective potential
is a convenient mathematical trick to make the previous equation look just like
the energy equation for a particle in one dimension. However, the term is
not a true potential energy related to a force. This term is actually a kinetic
energy, but grouping it with the true potential energy helps us write the
formal solution of the energy equation more directly, and it will also help us use
simple energy diagrams to describe central force motion qualitatively.

Energy Equations and Energy Diagrams:

We just found that the expression of energy , depends on

the single coordinate . In fact, it is identical to the equation for the energy of a
particle of mass constrained to move along a straight line with kinetic energy
and potential energy . The coordinate is completely suppressed.
Now let us apply energy equations to the meatier problem of planetary motion
to find the energy diagram. For the gravitational force between two masses
and (which is always attractive), we write

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

So, . The effective potential

energy is therefore

If , the repulsive centrifugal potential dominates at small values of

, and the attractive gravitational potential dominates at large values
of . Fig. 5 shows the energy diagrams with various values of the total energy
.

Fig. 5

The repulsive centrifugal potential remains always positive and the attractive
gravitational potential remains negative, but the sum becomes positive for
low values of , but changes its sign to negative above a certain value of . As
we will see later that the minimum possible value of will be equal to the

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

minimum allowed value of the total energy . The kinetic energy of radial
motion is , and the motion is restricted to regions where .
The nature of the motion is determined by the total energy. Here are the various
possibilities, as shown in the Fig. 5.

1. : Here is unbounded for large values but cannot be less than a certain
minimum if . So, the particles are kept apart by the centrifugal barrier.

2. : This is qualitatively similar to case 1 but on the boundary between

unbounded and bounded motion.

3. : The motion is bounded for both large and small values of . Here the
two particles form a bound system.

4. : Here is restricted to only one value. The particles stay a constant

distance from one another.

All these cases also correspond to the shapes of various trajectories. We shall
find that case 1 corresponds to motion in a hyperbola, case 2 corresponds to a
parabola, case 3 to an ellipse and case 4 to a circle.

There is one last possibility for . In this case the particles accelerate
towards each other along a straight line on a collision course, since when
there is no centrifugal barrier to keep them apart.

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)
 Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.

This concludes part 2 of this e-report.

The discussion will be continuing in the part 3 of this e-report.

Reference(s):
An Introduction to Mechanics, Kleppner & Kolenkow, Cambridge
University Press

A Treatise on General Properties of Matter, Chatterjee & Sengupta,

New Central Book Agency

(All the figures have been collected from the above mentioned references)

PAPER: C2T (Mechanics)

TOPIC(s): Gravitation and Central Force Motion (Part – 2)