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Realizing Keplerian Orbits as Geodesics on a Surface of Revolution

Student-Run Research Seminar

Speaker: Brandon Barrette, UC Davis
Location: 3106 MSB
Start time: Wed, May 26 2010, 12:10PM

We will explore the following question: To what extent can a fixed plane $\mathbb{P}$ be embedded as a surface of revolution $\mathbb{S}$ inside an abstract three-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}$ in such a way that gravitational trajectories are mapped to geodesics on $\mathbb{S} \subset \mathbb{E}$?