Orbital Inclination Plane-Change Δv

Inspectable records

Ledger state

The current ledger marks this instrument verified clean within the source-bound verification corpus.

Area

Earth & Space (astronomy, orbital mechanics, meteorology, geology, geodesy, oceanography)

Tranche

tranche-4

Evidence ID

t4-245

Ledger rows

1

No ledger note is attached.

Review findings

The formula and honest-label claim are correct under the fixed-speed, instantaneous, pure-plane-change assumption. Verdict is NEEDS_REVIEW because the specification does not state whether inclination_change_angle is supplied in degrees or radians, does not require a nonnegative angle, and does not define the valid angle range.

Formula and scope findings

• The formula is standard for an instantaneous pure plane change when the velocity magnitude is unchanged: Δv = 2v·sin(|Δi|/2). As written, a negative Δi produces a negative Δv; the angle should be treated as a nonnegative magnitude.
• The input constraint should state 0 ≤ Δi ≤ π radians (0° to 180°) and v > 0. Values outside that range require angle normalization or a clarified interpretation.

Unit assumptions

• Orbital velocity v and resulting Δv use the same speed units; the test vectors use km/s.
• The trigonometric function must interpret Δi in radians unless the implementation explicitly converts degree inputs.
• Δi is the angle between the initial and final velocity vectors at the plane-change point; for a pure inclination change at a node, this equals the plane-change angle.

Boundary hardening

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

The extreme-magnitude vector can produce JavaScript Infinity because the intermediate multiplication 2·v overflows, even though the mathematically reordered result is finite. The branch vector also exposes that an inclination change above π needs explicit rejection or normalization, which is not specified.

Errata and corrections

No applied erratum is attached to this unique-name record.

Inspectable example

4 review vectors are recorded. One source-bound sample is shown below.

{
  "inputs": {
    "orbital_velocity_km_s": 7.8,
    "inclination_change_deg": 60
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "delta_v_km_s": 7.8
  },
  "working": "Convert angle: 60° × π/180 = π/3 rad. Half-angle: (π/3)/2 = π/6. sin(π/6) = 0.5. Δv = 2 × 7.8 km/s × 0.5 = 7.8 km/s."
}

Related workflows

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

• VERIFIED_LEDGER.json · VERIFIED_CLEAN
• evidence-tranche4/tranche4-results.json
• BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json