# Kepler's laws for circular orbits

Kepler's first law states that planets revolve around the sun in an ellipse with the sun at one focus of this ellipse. (a special case would be a circular orbit with the sun at the center). The second law states that the areal velocity is a constant. Thus we can write ($$dA = c dt$$). If we integrate over one complete cycle we find that the area of the orbit, which is proportional to the square of the radius, is proportional to the time period. The third law states that the square of the time period is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of the elliptical orbit. My question is, should we swap out "semi-major axis" and replace it with "radius", or is there something missing? if we can, that leads to a contradiction with the second law. however, how can the result obtained from the second law be wrong for circular orbits? What am I missing?

• Constant means doesn’t change with time; your $c$ can be different for different radii. – G. Smith Mar 5 at 22:59
• it's the same constant for the single orbit we're concerned with in the problem. it actually has a particular value related to the angular momentum of the system and the reduced mass of the objects involved. – user626542 Mar 6 at 4:31
• You’re missing the point and confusing yourself. When you say the square of the period is proportional to the cube of the radius, you are talking about different radii having different periods. – G. Smith Mar 6 at 5:18
• It is meaningless to say that (some power of) one period is proportional to (some power of) one radius. That’s like saying 5 is proportional to 3. – G. Smith Mar 6 at 5:30

For circular orbits, $$\frac{dA}{dt}=\frac{L}{2\mu}\Rightarrow \pi R^2=\frac{L}{2\mu}T$$ Further $$E=\frac{\mu C^2}{2L^2}\ \ \ \text{For circular orbits}$$ From now on I'm just going to keep track of proportionality. $$R^2\propto LT\propto\frac{1}{\sqrt{E}}T$$ But further we known that $$R\propto 1/E$$ $$R^{3/2}\propto T\Rightarrow \boxed{R^3\propto T^2}$$
• What is $C$? .. – G. Smith Mar 5 at 22:56
• It's a constant which is used for $Gm_1m_2$. – Young Kindaichi Mar 5 at 22:59