Explore how the velocity and position of a planet affect its movement and orbit:
Students will understand how a planet’s velocity varies depending on its position in its orbit. They will investigate how the gravitational force between the planet and the Sun influences the planet’s speed at different points in its orbit.
Key Concepts: Orbital velocity, gravitational attraction, and elliptical orbits.
Discover how Kepler’s Laws apply for different bodies in the solar system:
Students will apply Kepler’s Laws to the movement of different celestial bodies, such as planets, moons, and comets, in our solar system. They will explore how these laws help explain the motion of various objects in space.
Key Concepts: Kepler’s three laws, orbital dynamics.
Describe the characteristics of an ellipse that support the understanding of planets’ orbits according to Kepler’s First Law:
Students will study the shape of ellipses and how they relate to planetary orbits. They will focus on the fact that planets do not orbit in perfect circles, but in elliptical paths, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.
Key Concepts: Ellipses, foci, semi-major axis, Kepler’s First Law.
Visualize what is meant by the “swept area of a planet’s orbit” and its relationship with equal time intervals in the context of Kepler’s Second Law:
Students will explore the concept of “swept area,” which refers to the area swept out by a line connecting the planet to the Sun. They will understand how Kepler’s Second Law states that a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals, meaning the planet moves faster when closer to the Sun and slower when farther away.
Key Concepts: Equal areas in equal time, planetary speed, orbit dynamics, Kepler’s Second Law.
Describe the behavior of the planet’s velocity at different moments of its orbit:
Students will learn how the velocity of a planet changes as it moves along its elliptical orbit. They will focus on how the speed is faster when the planet is closer to the Sun (perihelion) and slower when it is farther away (aphelion).
Key Concepts: Orbital velocity, perihelion, aphelion, gravitational force.
Explore the relationship between the semi-major axis and the period of an orbit, and their corresponding powers described by Kepler’s Third Law:
Students will examine how the semi-major axis (the long axis of the ellipse) is related to the orbital period (the time it takes a planet to complete one orbit). They will study Kepler’s Third Law and how the period squared is proportional to the semi-major axis cubed for any orbiting body.
Key Concepts: Kepler’s Third Law, orbital period, semi-major axis, proportionality.
