iSplicer
Well-Known Member
As an astrophysics student, let me assure you that we were not advantaged in any way.this was such a bad question imo. poorly explained. the way they describe it in the question makes it impossible to answer (with or without slingshot effect)...and i know this is what the question was getting at by saying use kepplers laws to show how the doesnt make sense but researching it, the JWST travels in an elliptical orbit and the question makes out like it travels in a circular orbit.
the fact of the matter is that the slingshot effect isnt strong enough to account for its orbit. it is rather the coupling of the slingshot effect with an elliptical orbit. gay ass question. astrophysics students were so fucking advantaged in this test.
I think I completely screwed up that question; i didn't mention anything about langrage points or the gravitational effect of the earth, as these are completely out of the syllabus and I had no idea how to include Kepler's law in explaining langrangian mechanics. I based my answer completely on Kepler's law of periods linked with the concept of center of mass (when considering the barycenters, the 'r' variable may indeed be the same --> same period). Did anyone else do this?