Talk:Kepler problem

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think there was a mistake in the energy and eccentricity formulas. You need to have m^2 and not m to be coherent. Kilohn_limahn, 8/2/2007

Hi Kilohn, thanks for checking the formula! :) However, I think there might be a mistake. In this problem k has units of [energy length], as you can see from the formula V = -k/r. So k² has units of [energy² length²]. The angular momentum L has units of [mass speed length], so that L²/m has units of [mass speed² length²]. Therefore, k² m/L² has units of [energy² / mass speed²] = [energy²/energy] = [energy], as it should be. The eccentricity is a dimensionless number. Hoping that this article has been useful for you, and that you'll join us here at Wikipedia :) Willow 11:49, 3 August 2007 (UTC)