Name: Maylin Salazar Date: 11/20/2020 Student Exploration: Orbital Motion – Kepler’s Laws Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and prompts in the orange boxes. Vocabulary​:​ astronomical unit, eccentricity, ellipse, force, gravity, Kepler’s first law, Kepler’s second law, Kepler’s third law, orbit, orbital radius, period, vector, velocity Prior Knowledge Questions ​(Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) 1. The ​orbit​ of Halley’s Comet, shown at right, has an oval shape. In which part of its orbit do you think Halley’s Comet travels fastest? Slowest? Mark these points on the diagram at right. 2. How might a collision between Neptune and Halley’s Comet affect Neptune’s orbit? it would not affect it because of it’s mass Gizmo Warm-up The path of each planet around the Sun is determined by two factors: its current ​velocity​ (speed and direction) and the ​force​ of ​gravity​ on the planet. You can manipulate both of these factors as you investigate planetary orbits in the ​Orbital Motion – Kepler’s Laws G ​ izmo. On the CONTROLS pane of the Gizmo, turn on ​Show trails​ and check that ​Show vectors ​is on. Click ​Play​ ( ). 1. What is the shape of the planet’s orbit? it’s oval-ish 2. Watch the orbit over time. Does the orbit ever change, or is it stable? stable 3. Click ​Reset ​( ). Drag the tip of the purple arrow to shorten it and reduce the planet’ ...
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