Welcome to Orbits Explained

In this website you will find a way to understand how planets orbit using methods that are easy to understand. The methods used here give a better description of planetary movement and use simpler math and logic than standard teaching methods. If you are a high school student or teacher or college student or professor or are just a curious learner, you will likely discover that Orbits Explained is exactly what you are looking for.

These are the 3 tools that will be used to build a solid understanding of orbits:

A proof that a planet sweeps out equal areas between it and the Sun during equal amounts of time.

A demonstration that in order to sweep equal areas in equal times, an inverse proportion must exist between the distance to the Sun and the speed of a planet in the direction that is perpendicular to the direction towards the Sun.

A new geometric mathematical tool, called a hododyne, that generates line segments that are inversely proportional to each other. No calculus is involved.

These 3 tools will be used to prove Kepler’s Planetary Laws and Newton’s Inverse Square Law of Gravitational Force and Distance. Specifically, the hododyne will show that orbits are ellipses. The hododyne approach makes it unnecessary to use astronomical observations in order to prove that orbits are ellipses nor are they necessary to prove Kepler’s and Newton’s Planetary and Gravitational Laws.

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