Circular orbits on a warped spandex fabric
Classical Physics
2015-06-18 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
We present a theoretical and experimental analysis of circular-like orbits made by a marble rolling on a warped spandex fabric. We show that the mass of the fabric interior to the orbital path influences the motion of the marble in a nontrivial way, and can even dominate the orbital characteristics. We also compare a Kepler-like expression for such orbits to similar expressions for orbits about a spherically-symmetric massive object in the presence of a constant vacuum energy, as described by general relativity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1312.3893,
title = {Circular orbits on a warped spandex fabric},
author = {Chad A. Middleton and Michael Langston},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.3893},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
13 pages, 5 figures, to appear in AJP