Related papers: Rocket motion
We study the dynamics of an Airy wavepacket moving in a one-dimensional lattice potential. In contrast to the usual case of propagation in a continuum, for which such a wavepacket experiences a uniform acceleration, the lattice bounds its…
We comment about the general argument given to obtain the rocket equation as it is exposed in standard textbooks. In our opinion, it can induce students to a wrong answer when solving variable mass problems.
This article describes four innovative pedagogical exercises: (i) The expression for relation between cross sections in the laboratory and the centre of mass systems provided in text books assumes zero or low Q values which needs to be…
In Book 1, Proposition 7, Problem 2 of his 1687 Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton poses and answers the following question: Let the orbit of a particle moving in a central force field be an off-center circle. How…
Newton's laws of motion pose an apparent problem, sometimes referred to as "the independence problem": the first law seems to be a simple consequence of the second law, raising the question of why it was included as a separate law. Numerous…
Achieving relativistic flight to enable extrasolar exploration is one of the dreams of humanity and the long term goal of our NASA Starlight program. We derive a fully relativistic solution for the motion of a spacecraft propelled by…
In the air surrounding us, how does a particle diffuse? Thanks to Einstein and other pioneers,it has been well known that generally the particle will undergo the Brownian motion, and in the last century this insight has been corroborated by…
We propose a Lorentz-covariant theory of gravity, and explain its theoretical origins in the problem of time in Newtonian physics. In this retarded gravitation theory (RGT), the gravitational force depends upon both retarded position and…
We consider the motion of uncharged dust grains of arbitrary shape including the effects of electromagnetic radiation and thermal emission. The resulting relativistically covariant equation of motion is expressed in terms of standard…
Under certain conditions usually fulfilled in classical mechanics, the principle of conservation of linear momentum and Newton's third law are equivalent. However, the demonstration of this fact is usually incomplete in textbooks. We shall…
The force acting on a test particle moving around a body that is gravitating and emitting electromagnetic radiation at the same time is computed up to the second order in $1/c$, and the shift of perihelion is found. The total shift is…
It is shown, that the radiation of the charge, moving with uniform acceleration or uniformly moving round a circle and also freely moving in a gravitational field, contradicts the principle of equivalence. It is also shown, that the…
Non-relativistic de Broglie-Bohm theory describes particles moving under the guidance of the wave function. In de Broglie's original formulation, the particle dynamics is given by a first-order differential equation. In Bohm's…
In a previous paper we have shown that Newton's third law cannot strictly hold in a distributed system of which the different parts are at a finite distance from each other. This is due to the finite speed of signal propagation which cannot…
In this paper, we study the dynamics of a system of $n$ coupled, self-propelled particles: $\ddot r_k = (\alpha-\beta |\dot r_k|^2)\dot r_k - \frac{\gamma}{n}\sum_{m=1}^n(r_k-r_m)$, $r_k\in \mathbb R^2.$ Numerical experiments indicate that,…
In this paper of "The Epistemology of Contemporary Physics" series we investigate Newton's third law and discuss and analyze its epistemological significance from some aspects with special attention to its relation to the principle of…
In this paper, we discuss the leading order correction to the equation of motion of the particle, which presumably describes the effect of gravitational radiation reaction. We derive the equation of motion in two different ways. The first…
We study the dynamics of a spherical rigid body that rocks and rolls on a plane under the effect of gravity. The distribution of mass is non-uniform and the centre of mass does not coincide with the geometric centre. The symmetric case,…
. The inertia property of matter is discussed in terms of a type of induction law related to the extended charged particle's own vector potential. Our approach is based on the Lagrangian formalism of canonical momentum writing Newton's…
The developed theory proves that a universal vortex motion, along with the pressure variation in a space continuum called ether, is actually the source of the universal gravitation and creation of celestial bodies and their motion in the…