The shape and orientation of the orbits can be determined from the LRL vector as follows. Taking the dot product of A with the position vector r gives the equation A ⋅ ⋅ r = A ⋅ ⋅ r ⋅ ⋅ cos ⁡ ⁡ θ θ = r ⋅ ⋅ ( p × × L ) − − m k r , where θ is the angle between r and A (Figure 2). Permuting the scalar triple product yields r ⋅ ⋅ ( p × × L ) = ( r × × p ) ⋅ ⋅ L = L ⋅ ⋅ L = L 2