Talk:Kozai mechanism
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[edit] Inclination
In the Consequences section, it says
- if the orbit of a planet's moon is highly inclined to the planet's orbit the eccentricity of the moon's orbit will increase ..."
Shouldn't it be "...is highly inclined to the planet's equator ..."? The present wording looks fishy to me, but i'm no expert. Deuar 18:18, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
- Hey, I’m not an expert either :-). The planet equator is actually irrelevant because in 3-body in question the masses are not spinning. (nothing but the gravitational potential from two bodies is considered). If you take Uranus for example, the irregulars have no clue about its curious spin (axis).
- Kozai resonance is referred to so many times in papers, and explained so badly, that I plan to put core stuff here. Actually, in low order the stuff is simple and entirely related to the unique integral (Jacobi integral). The results are derived (half qualitatively-half quantitatively) from Lagrange equations for de/dt and di/dt. I don’t like magic deus ex machina values like the one in this article for the critical angle, so I plan to explain it. Eurocommuter 18:41, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
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- Ah! Got your point. The statement directly relates to the regular moon and the respectable regular moons have been created near the equator of the planet (or brought there by tides, if the planet axis is now inclined…). Hmmm, this requires a small rewriting (however, putting equator would also be misleading, see above). Anyway there’s more to it, and the section is no more than a draft for now. Eurocommuter 19:03, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
- Ah, the plot thickens... Deuar 21:14, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
- Ah! Got your point. The statement directly relates to the regular moon and the respectable regular moons have been created near the equator of the planet (or brought there by tides, if the planet axis is now inclined…). Hmmm, this requires a small rewriting (however, putting equator would also be misleading, see above). Anyway there’s more to it, and the section is no more than a draft for now. Eurocommuter 19:03, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Why?
Anyone have an explanation for why these effects occur? Is there something that a (reasonably smart) lay person could visualize? --P3d0 17:11, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
