Kepler’s Laws Physics Mrs. Coyle
Geocentric View Points Aristotle (Greek) 384-322 BC Ptolemy (Alexandrian Greek) 85-65AD
Heliocentric Viewpoints Aristarchus (Greek)310-230 BC Copernicus (Poland and Italy) 1473-1543 Galileo Galilei (Italian) 1564-1642
Tycho Brahe (Danish) (Dec 14)1546-1601
Tycho Brahe (Danish) 1546-1601 Worked on the Island of Hven near Copenhagen at the Uraniborg Observatory Compromise Theory: The Sun orbits the Earth, but the remaining planets orbit the Sun. Btrahe passed along his observations to Johannes Kepler, his assistant.
Brahe’s Compromise Theory
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) German Astronomer
Kepler’s First Law (Law of Orbits): Planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one of the focal points. E L L I P S E http://www.physics.utah.edu/~cassiday/p1080/lec03_files/image004.gif
Kepler’s Laws Animation http://astro.unl.edu/naap/pos/animations/kepler.swf
Kepler’s 2nd Law(The Law of Areas) A line from the sun to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time.
Where is the speed of the earth greater, point B or C?
Kepler’s Laws Animation http://astro.unl.edu/naap/pos/animations/kepler.swf
Kepler’s Third Law ( Law of Periods or Law of Harmony) The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the average distance of the planet from the Sun. K for our Solar System
Kepler’s Third Law ( Law of Periods or Law of Harmony) 2 3 ( _ Ta___ ) = ( _ ra ___ ) Tb rb
EXAMPLE: An asteroid revolves around the sun with a mean orbital radius of three times that of the earth. What is the period of the asteroid in earth years? Answer: 5.2y
Video -9 Min http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W073Kn40KZ0