Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-4-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/section-b/b1/solution

In a central potential, is conserved. Substituting it into gives
While the string stays taut, . Circular force balance gives , hence . A radial impulse changes no angular momentum. The radial oscillation of an elastic-string orbit follows by expanding the same fixed- effective potential about its minimum:
so
For an outward impulse, one convenient linear approximation is and . The angular modulation follows from and is needed for a consistent trajectory sketch.
Figure 1.
Small radial-impulse trajectories: threefold modulation and the harmonic-orbit limit
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