Abstract:
The concepts of motion,force,momentum,energy of objects are basic and very
important in the
teaching of College Physics. In Newton mechanics,the future motion state
can be predicted for an orderly system if
the initial condition is given. Newton mechanics makes a great success in
astronomy. In this paper,by using universal
law of gravity,the theorem of momentum and combining the VPython
software,the motion of the celestial body
is studied. The special examples discussed in detail are the satellite and
the moon orbiting with the earth,the Mars
rotating about the sun,and the satellite moving around the binary star,etc.
The path and the moving process could
be visualized intuitively in real time. The teaching experience indicated
that simulating and visualizing the orbital
motion of celestial body based on VPython is a very powerful method to
improve student's ability of understanding
and applying Newton's law of motion and theorem of momentum.