{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", "# Project 3, deadline April 2\n", "\n", " \n", "**Computational Physics PHY480/905**, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University\n", "\n", "Date: **Spring semester 2018**\n", "\n", "## Building a model for the solar system using ordinary differential equations\n", "\n", "### Introduction\n", "\n", "The aim of this project is to develop a code for simulating the solar system using a widely popular algorithm for solving coupled ordinary differential equations, the so-called velocity Verlet\n", "algorithm.\n", "\n", "In the first part however, we will limit ourselves (in order to test the algorithm) \n", "to a hypothetical solar system\n", "with the Earth only orbiting around the sun.\n", "The only force in the problem is gravity. Newton's law of gravitation is given by a force $F_G$\n", "\\[\n", "F_G=\\frac{GM_{\\odot}M_{\\mathrm{Earth}}}{r^2},\n", "\\]\n", "where $M_{\\odot}$ is the mass of the Sun and $M_{\\mathrm{Earth}}$ is the mass of the Earth. The gravitational constant is $G$ and $r$ is the distance between the Earth and the Sun.\n", "We assume that the Sun has a mass which is much larger \n", "than that of the Earth. We can therefore safely neglect the \n", "motion of the Sun in this problem. In the first part of this project, your aim is to compute the motion\n", "of the the Earth using different methods for solving ordinary differential equations.\n", "\n", "We assume that the orbit of the Earth around the Sun \n", "is co-planar, and we take this to be the $xy$-plane.\n", "Using Newton's second law of motion we get the following equations\n", "\\[\n", "\\frac{d^2x}{dt^2}=\\frac{F_{G,x}}{M_{\\mathrm{Earth}}},\n", "\\]\n", "and \n", "\\[\n", "\\frac{d^2y}{dt^2}=\\frac{F_{G,y}}{M_{\\mathrm{Earth}}},\n", "\\]\n", "where $F_{G,x}$ and $F_{G,y}$ are the $x$ and $y$ components of the gravitational force. \n", "\n", "We will use so-called astronomical units when rewriting our equations. \n", "Using astronomical units (AU as abbreviation)it means that \n", "one astronomical unit of length, known as 1 AU, is the average distance between the Sun and Earth, that is\n", "$1$ AU = $1.5\\times 10^{11}$ m. It can also be convenient to use years instead of seconds since years match\n", "better the time evolution of the solar system. The mass of the Sun is $M_{\\mathrm{sun}}=M_{\\odot}=2\\times 10^{30}$ kg. The masses all relevant planets and their distances from the sun are listed in the table here in kg and AU.\n", "\n", "
Planet | Mass in kg | Distance to sun in AU |
---|---|---|
Earth | $M_{\\mathrm{Earth}}=6\\times 10^{24}$ kg | 1AU |
Jupiter | $M_{\\mathrm{Jupiter}}=1.9\\times 10^{27}$ kg | 5.20 AU |
Mars | $M_{\\mathrm{Mars}}=6.6\\times 10^{23}$ kg | 1.52 AU |
Venus | $M_{\\mathrm{Venus}}=4.9\\times 10^{24}$ kg | 0.72 AU |
Saturn | $M_{\\mathrm{Saturn}}=5.5\\times 10^{26}$ kg | 9.54 AU |
Mercury | $M_{\\mathrm{Mercury}}=3.3\\times 10^{23}$ kg | 0.39 AU |
Uranus | $M_{\\mathrm{Uranus}}=8.8\\times 10^{25}$ kg | 19.19 AU |
Neptun | $M_{\\mathrm{Neptun}}=1.03\\times 10^{26}$ kg | 30.06 AU |
Pluto | $M_{\\mathrm{Pluto}}=1.31\\times 10^{22}$ kg | 39.53 AU |