Kepler's Laws Honors

Last updated over 1 year ago

3 questions

Instructions

Kepler's 1st law states the sum of the distances between each foci and any point on the ellipse is constant.

Kepler's 3rd law states the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the radius of the orbit.
a3=kT2 where k is a constant for a body that is being orbited
So if two bodies orbiting the same larger body: a13/T12 = a23/T22

Kepler's Laws Honors

Last updated over 1 year ago

3 questions

Instructions

Kepler's 1st law states the sum of the distances between each foci and any point on the ellipse is constant.

Kepler's 3rd law states the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the radius of the orbit.
a3=kT2 where k is a constant for a body that is being orbited
So if two bodies orbiting the same larger body: a13/T12 = a23/T22

At its closest approach, a moon comes within 200,000 km of the planet it orbits. At that point, the moon is 300,000 km from the other focus of its orbit, f 2. The planet is focus f 1 of the moon’s elliptical orbit. How far is the moon from the planet when it is 260,000 km from f 2?

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has a mean orbital radius of 1.22x109 m. The orbital period of Titan is 15.95 days. Hyperion, another moon of Saturn, orbits at a mean radius of 1.48x109 m. Use Kepler’s third law of planetary motion to predict the orbital period of Hyperion in days.

Earth has an orbital period of 365 days and its mean distance from the Sun is 1.495x108 km. The planet Pluto’s mean distance from the Sun is 5.896x109 km. Using Kepler’s third law, calculate Pluto’s orbital period in Earth days.