Re: (SNES) Odds and Ends

["Ernest R. Evans" <pilotstar@mindspring.com>]

Les Coleman wrote:

>
> Now I know that I am probably the only amateur astronomer in Southern New
> England who actually cares about orbits but what the heck.

Les,

I, too, enjoy astronomical things such as orbits, but I'm sure my mathematical
prowess is well below yours. As a teenager, I figured out on my own how to
convert heliocentric coordinates to geocentric ones using logic, geometry, and
spherical trig. Later, as an adult, I programmed the orbit of Jupiter using
Kepler's Second Law and the "trapezoidal rule" to calculate the area swept by
Jupiter's radius vector. Kepler's Anomaly is very interesting, there are
numerous solutions for it. I'm limited by only four semesters of college
calculus, perhaps someday I'll take more courses in it. I'm trying self-taught
calculus, but it doesn't come easy to a slow-to-grasp person as myself!

Ernie
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