Comments | jmdazed: beerfest

jmdazed

beerfest

Feb 07, 2009 21:42

So this westfield state professor wants us to figure out what the shape of a planetary orbit is ... someone said ellipse and he said "no look it up" ... so as far as I know and as far as I can find it really is fucking elliptical. I don't know what he's asking ( Read more... )

Comments 8

yesimdeb February 8 2009, 03:13:12 UTC

Poor muffin. Let me know if you need any assistance. I owe you... and I have a good deal of free time anyway.

jmdazed February 8 2009, 05:17:23 UTC

oooo Don't tempt me you won't like it haha

if something comes by that won't take reading 4 chapters I'll ask you about it.

Thanks cute stuff!

ex_apostate818 February 8 2009, 04:10:27 UTC

I hate when you get questions like that. You give a correct answer, but the question isn't stated clearly.

It's elliptical unless you're taking a really indepth look at it, where you'd discuss whether it was a curve or a straight line in curved space(a 'geodesic'?), or if you'd not consider it an ellipse due to slight perturbations from gravitational attraction to nearby bodies. Or if he wants "nearly circular." Or if he wants you to express the shape in terms mathematic formulas or physical concepts. Orbits in general are conic sections, but to be a planet and not a comet or whatever, it'd have to be closed, thus, an ellipse. I dunno.

What class is this?

jmdazed February 8 2009, 05:16:24 UTC

It's special education. I don't know why he's making us do this. It's completely unrelated. When he asked the question I was sure he didn't mean what he was asking. He's one of those teachers who has a reply in mind and won't listen to anything else.

His words were "What shape is a planetary orbit in?"
and he didn't like ellipse, elliptical, oval, or oblong.
shenanigans.

ex_apostate818 February 9 2009, 02:39:36 UTC

I wouldn't take "oval" or "oblong", either.

sixxnine February 10 2009, 03:58:00 UTC

lol hmmm..vortex?..or elliptical vortex orbit/

our sun moves through space at 240km/sec-->..so the planets are actually corkscrewing if you traced the movement through space.

or maybe its about relating to special needs children.
idk

poziomka February 8 2009, 22:24:18 UTC

hyperbola/parabola

poziomka February 8 2009, 22:25:06 UTC

mm....well....

http://www.go.ednet.ns.ca/~larry/orbits/ellipse.html