Geometry of Conic Sections

Conic sections play an essential role in the description of

trajectories of objects under the influence of a central force.

In this course the mathematical representations of the various

conic sections will be derived from first principles and a

generic description in spherical coordinates is developed.

The formalism will then be applied to physical situations like

the motion of celestial bodies in a central gravitational field

and the scattering of electrically charged elementary particles.

Based on general arguments it is seen that the classical total

energy of the moving object determines the conic section that

represents the trajectory.

Lecture Notes :

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