Consider a star of mass m₂ kg revolving in a circular orbit around another star of mass m₁ kg with m₁ \gg m₂. The heavier star slowly acquires mass from the lighter star at a constant rate of $\gamma$ kg/s. In this transfer process, there is no other loss of mass. If the separation between the centers of the stars is r, then its relative rate of change $\frac{1}{r}\frac{dr}{dt}$ (in s⁻¹) is given by:

A particle of mass $m$ is under the influence of the gravitational field of a body of mass $M(\gg m)$. The particle is moving in a circular orbit of radius $r_0$ with time period $T_0$ around the mass $M$. Then, the particle is subjected to an additional central force, corresponding to the potential energy $V_{\mathrm{c}}(r)=m \alpha / r^3$, where $\alpha$ is a positive constant of suitable dimensions and $r$ is the distance from the center of the orbit. If the particle moves in the same circular orbit of radius $r_0$ in the combined gravitational potential due to $M$ and $V_{\mathrm{c}}(r)$, but with a new time period $T_1$, then $\left(T_1^2-T_0^2\right) / T_1^2$ is given by

[G is the gravitational constant.]