It was believed until very recently that a near-equatorial satellite would always keep up with the planet’s equator (with oscillations in inclination, but without a secular drift). As explained in Efroimsky and Goldreich (2004), this misconception originated from a wrong interpretation of a (mathematically correct) result obtained in terms of non-osculating orbital elements. A similar analysis ...

It was believed until very recently that a near-equatorial satellite would always keep up with the planet’s equator (with oscillations in inclination, but without a secular drift). As explained in Efroimsky and Goldreich (2004), this misconception originated from a wrong interpretation of a (mathematically correct) result obtained in terms of non-osculating orbital elements. A similar analysis ...

This research paper addresses secularization from both political and religious perspectives. One of its manifestations in the political sphere is that of globalization that can lead to alienation within society; and in the United Kingdom this is exemplified by Brexit. Within the religious sphere secularization is usually couched in oppositional terms. This paper reclaims the original use ...

Coupling effects of Earth oblateness and direct solar radiation pressure on the motion of an artificial satellite are evaluated. Secular and periodic terms are retained up to order three and two respectively, where the coefficient 2 J of the second zonal harmonic of the geopotential is considered of first order. The solution revealed the existence of secular terms at order three that arises fro...

It is shown that the renormalization group method does not necessarily eliminate all secular terms in perturbation series to partial differential equations and a functional subspace of renormalizable secular solutions corresponds to a choice of scales of independent variables in the reductive perturbation method. Recently a novel method based on the perturbative renormalization group theory has...

Equations describing serial radioactive decay are reviewed along with published descriptions of transient and secular equilibrium. It is shown that terms describing equilibrium are not used in the same way by various authors. Specific definitions are proposed; they suggest that secular equilibrium is a subset of transient equilibrium.