Introduction

In many important physical situations, the force acting on a particle is always directed toward or away from a fixed point and depends only on the distance from that point. Such forces are called central forces.

Examples include:

• Gravitational force between planets
• Electrostatic force between charges
• Motion of satellites

Central force problems are extremely important because they lead to:

• Conservation of angular momentum
• Motion confined to a plane
• Predictable orbital shapes