Kepler's Laws

Master Kepler's Laws! Practice problems on elliptical orbits, eccentricity, and planetary motion.

Read the following explanation of Kepler's 1st law and complete the questions below. What is eccentricity? In your own words explain Kepler's 1st Law Read the explanation of Kepler's 2nd Law and answer the following questions. In your own words describe Kepler's 2nd Law Label the diagram below: Perihelion, aphelion, the sun Perihelion The Sun Aphelion Read the explanation for Kepler's 3rd Law and answer the questions below. Read the bottom paragraph of the explanation, what is Kepler' 3rd law in simple terms? What is an astronomical unit? Another word for an orbital period is a year Eccentricty can be calculated using this formula: E = d / L . Label the d and L on the diagram d L Calculate for eccentricity. 0.48 Sort by length of orbital period. Shorter Orbital Period Mercury Mars Venus Longer Orbital period Jupiter Neptune Uranus Sort Kepler's Laws Kepler's 2nd Law A planets reaches perihelion, it's speed increases Kepler's 1st Law The planets orbit the sun in an elliptical shape. Kepler's 3rd Law The farther away a planet's orbit is from the sun, the longer the time it takes to complete one orbital period.