"The First rule of planetary motion: you don't talk about planetary motion."

The motions of planets, asteroids, comets -- and even satellites and spaceships most of their time -- can be described by three simple laws, first formulated by Johannes Kepler in the early 1600s.

Just by understanding the Kepler's laws you can understand how almost everything moves in space. So before coming to the lecture, check them out if you don't know them intimately already. Please note, however, that I don't mean that you should be able to just repeat the laws as empty words. Instead, try to understand what they really mean -- what they look, or how they really make objects move.

You can start by watching different videos on this YouTube playlist (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIajzsXrQd5tQciRoRJFezpt7KRPb2kFW), . If you encounter these for the first time, I recommend the videos by "Socratica", or if you are already familiar with them, videos by "Saul Remi Hernandez" are probably more useful to you.

You can also read more about them in here or here, and try them in action by playing with this applet or this (if your browser supports Flash).

Make sure you know what Kepler's laws say and what they mean in practice, before the second lecture. We will assume everyone is familiar with them on the lecture and continue to their applications directly.

Last modified: Thursday, 7 January 2021, 12:56 PM