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WordNet
orbital motion

n. motion of an object in an orbit around a fixed point; "satellites in orbital rotation" [syn: orbital rotation]

Wikipedia
Orbital motion (quantum)

Quantum orbital motion involves the quantum mechanical motion of rigid particles (such as electrons) about some other mass, or about themselves. Typically, orbital motion in classical motion is characterized by orbital angular momentum (the orbital motion of the center of mass) and spin, which is the motion about the center of mass. In quantum mechanics, there are analogous forms of spin and angular momentum, however they differ fundamentally from the models of classical bodies. For example, an electron (one of the main particles of concern in quantum mechanics) exhibits very quantum mechanical behavior in its motion around the nucleus of an atom which cannot be explained by classical mechanics.

Usage examples of "orbital motion".

The shuttle was bobbing and shaking along due to the rapidly changing gravitational field of the binary orbital motion as if it were a raft in a whitewater-filled river.

Jet black, a bit grainy, the image distorting for a moment or two as the Ring of Charon adjusted itself, correcting for its own orbital motion.

We borrow Deimos's orbital motion to assist us, and as we pull round on the sunward side, you'll see Mars go through all its phases in a half hour.

It was no longer speeding around the black hole in a direction contrary to the hole's own path around the parent hole, but was picking up fifty thousand g's worth of acceleration from the hole's orbital motion.

The separation of color would be minute, but the effects would be dramatic: the two orbiting, polarized cores would generate powerful jets of mesons, which would act to brake the neutron stars' orbital motion a kind of nuclear analogue of gravitational radiation, but mediated by the strong force and hence much more energetic.

And there was another, major reason: when all of Hern VI's axial rotation had been converted to orbital motion, .

Slight variations in the output of sunlight, the orbital motion of the planet, clouds, oceans, and polar icecaps produced climatic changes –.

The spacecraft's acceleration is compensated for by a deceleration in the planet's orbital motion around the Sun.

The calculations of the mass and distance and orbital motion of the other star were therefore very difficult, but the final results looked good.

It had to be a complex of solid particles, of course, and an organization of solid particles cannot exist in space without orbital motion.

Yet these changes together with orbital motion affect billions of lives each year.