rob wrote:
Yes I have put in data for our solar system, but I have calculated the
planets starting position and velocity as if the planets travel in a circle
around the sun. They do seem to do the right thing ie. the earth travels
around in approx 365 days and follows a circular path.

What I really need is a way to calculate the planet's starting position and
velocity for the eliptical path that they actually follow. So what I need
to do (and have not yet worked out how to do) is determine the planets
velocity at the apogee and their distance from the sun at this point. Dont
suppose you have a simple formula to work that out?

From: "Daniel"
Subject: Orbital Calculator - Solar System Simulator
Date: Thursday, November 16, 2006 10:34 AM

rob wrote:
Hi

I created a program for calucalting the orbits of planets in any solar
system. You can define your own solar system and the program calculates
and
displays the orbits of the planets. The problem is that I dont know if I
have got it right. Fundamentally, the program is based upon the universal
law of gravitation, but I would very much appreciate a second opinion as
to
whether or nor it is correctly calculating the orbits of the planets.

The program can be downloaded from the following web site:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/rob_tink/

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.


Cheers
Rob



Have YOU tried plugging in the relevant data for the solar system and
seeing how well it matches up??

Daniel


Not a clue, but if you wanted a starting position for the planets,
Wasn't voyagers mission, through the 80's and 90's, to fly past the
planets as they were almost in a row.

Daniel

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