Related papers: Teaching the Kepler laws for freshmen
A very fundamental geometric problem on finite systems of spheres was independently phrased by Kneser (1955) and Poulsen (1954). According to their well-known conjecture if a finite set of balls in Euclidean space is repositioned so that…
This article is an attempt for a new vision of the basics of Physics, and of Relativity, in particular. A new generalized principle of inertia is proposed, as an universal principle, based on universality of the conservation laws, not…
In this paper I present a kind of proof for classical Euclidean geometric problems which relies on both synthetic and analytic geometry. Using the elementary tools of polynomial algebra and multivariate calculus we manage to reduce the…
The three key documents for study geometry are: 1) "The Elements" of Euclid, 2) the lecture by B. Riemann at G\"ottingen in 1854 entitled "\"Uber die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen" (On the hypotheses which underlie…
In this article, I develop an elementary system of axioms for Euclidean geometry. On one hand, the system is based on the symmetry principles which express our a priori ignorant approach to space: all places are the same to us (the…
Posing Kepler's problem of motion around a fixed "sun" requires the geometric mechanician to choose a metric and a Laplacian. The metric provides the kinetic energy. The fundamental solution to the Laplacian (with delta source at the "sun")…
We give simple proofs of some simple statements concerning the Lambert problem. We first restate and reprove the known existence and uniqueness results for the Keplerian arc. We also prove in some cases that the elapsed time is a convex…
It is well known that a rigid motion of the Euclidean plane can be written as the composition of at most three reflections. It is perhaps not so widely known that a similar result holds for Euclidean space in any number of dimensions. The…
In this paper we present some results obtained in a previous paper about the Cartan's approach to Riemannian normal coordinates and our conformal transformations among pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. We also review the classical and the…
In this contribution it is shown that the path from Kepler's results to Newtonian motion can be remarkably short and simple. Following this path we also give a straight forward computation of the direction angle of Hamilton's Hodograph.…
Given an arbitrary convex symmetric n-dimensional body, we construct a natural and non-trivial continuous map which associates ellipsoids to ellipsoids, such that the Lowner-John ellipsoid of the body is its unique fixed point. A new…
Riemann's principle "force equals geometry" provided the basis for Einstein's General Relativity - the geometric theory of gravitation. In this paper, we follow this principle to derive the dynamics for any static, conservative force. The…
We give in the present work a new methodology that allows to give isoperimetric proofs, for Kneser's Theorem and Kemperman's structure Theory and most sophisticated results of this type. As an illustration we present a new proof of Kneser's…
The purpose of this book is to give an exposition of geometry, from a point of view which complements Klein's Erlangen program. The emphasis is on extending the classical Euclidean geometry to the finite case, but it goes beyond that. After…
Isaac Newton's book 'Opticks' from the 18th century includes several hypotheses on the structure of matter. Most of the hypotheses were confirmed during the 19th and 20th centuries at the scale of atoms and molecules. Conflicts appear…
We first discuss the use of dimensional arguments (and of the quadrupolar emission hypothesis) in the derivation of the gravitational power radiated on a circular orbit. Then, we show how to simply obtain the instantaneous power radiated on…
A beautiful theorem of Thomas Price links the Fibonacci numbers and the Lucas polynomials to the plane geometry of an ellipse, generalizing a classic problem about circles. We give a brief history of the circle problem, an account of…
The manuscripts provides a novel starting guess for the solution of Kepler's equation for unknown eccentric anomaly E given the eccentricity e and mean anomaly M of an elliptical orbit.
The book is designed for a semester-long course in Foundations of Geometry and meant to be rigorous, conservative, elementary and minimalist. List of topics: Euclidean geometry: The Axioms / Half-planes / Congruent triangles / Perpendicular…
This article has been written for an educational magazine whose target audience consists of students and teachers of mathematics in universities, colleges and schools. It concerns a notion of duality between rectangles. A proof is given…