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Dec 6, 2023

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AST 101 Lab 6 Kepler’s Laws: Part II Lab 6 Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion: Part II PURPOSE This laboratory exercise will allow the student to study Kepler’s laws of planetary motion by examining the motion of Mercury. REFERENCES none BACKGROUND Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion states that planets sweep out equal areas in equal times. In general terms, it means that if a body is moving in an elliptical path under the influence of a central force, a line drawn from the source of the central force to the body will sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time (Figure 6-1). The gravitational attraction between the Sun and the Mercury is an example of a central force in operation. The force on Mercury is directed toward the Sun, which is at one focus of the orbit of the Earth. Figure 6-1: Equal areas swept out in equal times. Q P E Q P
AST 101 Lab 6 Kepler’s Laws: Part II Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion, sometimes referred to as his “Harmonic Law", relates the periods of the orbits of planets to their average distances from the sun. In general, it means that the square of the amount of time an object requires to complete an orbit in an elliptical path under the influence of a central force is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of the ellipse. Therefore the greater the distance a planet is away from the Sun, the longer the period. The Harmonic Law may be stated as a 3 = kP 2 (6-1) where a is the semi-major axis of the orbit, P is the sidereal period and k is the constant of proportionality called the Kepler constant. The Kepler constant depends only on the body being orbited and not the orbiting body. In practice, since the period of an orbit and its semi-major axis are both observable quantities, the Harmonic Law is used to find the mass of the object supplying the central force. We will use the orbit of Mercury to do three tasks. First, we will plot the orbit itself and describe the properties of the elliptical path Mercury follows. Second, we will verify Kepler’s Second Law by calculating the areas of two separate wedges swept out by the planet. EQUIPMENT Graph paper Ruler protractor PROCEDURE Exercise #1: Plotting the Orbit of A Planet Using the data in Table 6-1, plot the orbit of Mercury. The orbital data is given in terms of an angle relative to the Sun and its distance from the Sun in millions of miles Draw a line segment from the star straight up the page and label it as 0 degrees. Angles are measured counter-clockwise. 1) From the center of the page, mark a point that is 3.75 cm above the center along the 0 degree line. This point will represent the focus of the ellipse were the Sun is located. All orbital data for Mercury will be measured from this point. 2) Plot the data in Table 6-1 by using a protractor to establish the angle and a ruler to measure the corresponding distance along this angle. Note that each point represents 4 days of motion for Mercury.
AST 101 Lab 6 Kepler’s Laws: Part II 3) After all the points have been plotted, draw a smooth curve around the points to draw the orbit of Mercury. After plotting Mercury’s orbit, determine the properties of its elliptical path. 1) Sketch the major and minor axis. 2) Find and record the semi-major axis and the semi-minor axis. When recording the lengths of the axes, be sure to record them in terms of millions of miles. 3) Determine the location of the foci using the expression c = where c is the distance from the center of the ellipse to a focus, a is the semi-major axis and b is the semi-minor axis. 4) Label the foci of the ellipse and the center of the ellipse. 5) Determine the eccentricity of the ellipse and compare this to the accepted value. Record your results in the data section. Table 6-1: The orbit of Mercury
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