i dont understand why orbits are ellipses can somebody explain it to me pls?

Question

in the simplest leymans terms you can like you are telling a child!!

Answer 1

If you cut a watermelon across the middle you get a circle. If you cut it lengthwise you get an ellipse. Consider that the sun (although massive) is somewhere within the watermelon on its centerline. If on "day one" something pushes a planet around the sun in a circular or an elliptical path, the planet must follow that path until something else (collision with another planet or large comet?) forces the planet into another path. In a circular path the planet maintains a constant orbital velocity. In an elliptical path, the planet speeds up as it approaches the sun (due to the sun's gravity) and slows down while moving away from the sun. Since there is nil gas in outer space, there is no friction to slow down a planet and they can continue on there paths till the end of time.

Answer 2

Even a circle is an ellipse. But it is a special ellipse where the two focal points are in the same spot.

The way things work is that nothing in the universe is going to orbit in an exact circle, because the circle is such a special case.

It is interesting to note that Kepler, who took over from Copernicus the notion that the sun, not the Earth, was center of the planetary system, spent years trying to come up withhis orbital theories. He could not account for certain discrepencies because even though he was an incredibly intelligent researcher and mathematician, the centuries of teaching by the clerics that God made the universe perfect and therefore everything must orbit in true circles, was still ingrained in his mind.

When finally it clicked that all planetary orbits are ellipses, all his calculations and observations fell into place, and he came up with his famous orbital equations that explain the relationship between all objects in the universe.

Read about Johann Kepler, and you will understand why all orbits are elliptical.

Answer 3

You have to read orbital mechanics.
Simply the orbits are determined by the velocity of the body , the height at which the body is released and the g acceleration due to gravity.
Object crashes to the attracting body

elliptical orbit below circular

circular orbit this will happen only at a particular velocity

elliptical orbit above circular

Parabolic orbit above the elliptic velocity

Hyperbolic orbit

The circular orbit is unique and hence difficult. So mostly elliptic or very close to circle but elliptic is common. There are 2 elliptic because ellipse have 2 points apogee, perigee etc read for more on this

Answer 4

Unfortunately, this requires a bit of calculus to prove. The basic idea is to use F=ma along with F=GMm/r^2 to derive an equation of motion. It turns out to be best to solve the equation in polar coordinates and after many manipulations, you get that the path is a conic section. If the gravitational force had a slightly different form, the orbits would not necessarily close up; they would do a loopy spiral. It really is easier to just remember the result unless you are willing to do some math.

Answer 5

An elipse is just as valid as a circle as a stable orbit. In fact, there probably isn't a perfectly circular orbit anywhere in the universe. Think of it this way. If you have a planet, and it somehow started out at a particular distance, but it wasn't traveling quite fast enough to hold the circular orbit, it would be accelerated toward the sun, picking up speed and getting closer. At some point it's speed would be enough to cause it to swing back away from the sun, slowing down as it did so. Voila, you have an elipse.

Answer 6

In laymens terms - orbits are basically circles, but they are not always perfect so they look like a flattened circle which is called an ellipse.

Otherwise it just works out mathematically from the physical equations.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

unlike what you believe... the universe is not perfect.

heavy tilts in the planets will create an uneven path.

even the rings of saturns.. .while they may look perfect and travel in an exact orbit around the planet, the zillions of rocks which make up the rings are not in a perfect order... anything but!