Circular Orbit - Angular Speed and Orbital Period

Angular Speed and Orbital Period

Hence the orbital period can be computed as:

Compare two proportional quantities, the free-fall time (time to fall to a point mass from rest)

(17.7 % of the orbital period in a circular orbit)

and the time to fall to a point mass in a radial parabolic orbit

(7.5 % of the orbital period in a circular orbit)

The fact that the formulas only differ by a constant factor is a priori clear from dimensional analysis.

Read more about this topic:  Circular Orbit

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