Re: mars and venus

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

You had a grazing collision, I suppose, in which the inner particle
hits (and sticks to) the outer particle from below. The speed of the
projectile (inner particle) is higher than the speed of the target
(outer particle). The direction of spinning is thus imposed by the
conservation of angular momentum of two particles, assuming
the angular momentum of their center of mass, and the spin of
the large central body, do not change. The angular momentum
can be conserved in many different ways but the most simple
seems to prevail. Why?
Ludwik Kowalski

John Mallinckrodt wrote:

> ... To get a quick idea, I just "wrote" an Interactive Physics simulation
> with two small particles orbiting a larger body in nearly adjacent orbits.
> I made them inelastic so that they could dissipate their excess energy upon
> colliding and, thereafter, stick together.  Not so surprisingly (I guess),
> the pair did indeed have a very small "backward" intrinsic angular
> momentum after colliding and sticking together. ...