A GENERAL SOLUTION AND TEACHING EXPLORATION TO PROBLEM OF PLANETARY ORBIT IN GENERAL PHYSICS

With the development of the aerospace industries in China, the construction and normal operation of China Space Station, and the launches of academic and engineering satellites, the problem of the orbits for planets or satellites has become an important topic which should be briefly introduced and simply analyzed in the teaching of the general physics. However, in most of the current textbooks and teaching, the planetary orbit is just taken as a passing problem and does not provide sufficient discussion. Within the scope of the basic mathematical knowledge among undergraduates, we start from the Newton Laws combining the conservation of angular momentum to obtain a general solution to the problem of planetary orbit, and then briefly discuss the possible forms and orbital transfer problems for planet movement. Also we present the Mathematica code and corresponding results to solve the orbit equation numerically and analytically. As a good practice example of the classical dynamics, the analysis and derivation to the planetary orbit can effectively enhance students' understanding of the application of Newton's Laws to practical problems in classical mechanics, and stimulate their interest in physics and aerospace.