Keplar Planetary Motion Lab Report
Kalia Townsend
Earth Science A2
5/28/14
ECCENTRICITY LAB REPORT
Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion: The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at one of the foci. The purpose of this lab is to demonstrate Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion by calculating the eccentricity of ellipses. The 3 main words that were important in this lab exercise was eccentricity, ellipse, and foci. Eccentricity means the degree of ovalness of an ellipse or how far an ellipse is from being a circle. Ellipse is a closed curve around two points in which the sum of the distances between any point of the curve and the foci is a constant. And lastly, foci is either of two fixed points located so that the sum of their distances to any point on the ellipse is constant. The materials used in this lab were a ruler, a calculator, cotton …show more content…
Of the four ellipses I drew, Ellipse 1 is most similar in eccentricity to the Earth's orbit because Ellipse 1 has an eccentricity of 0.111, and Earth has an eccentricity of 0.017.
4. The eccentricity of Earth's orbit:
Length of Major Axis
299,000,000 km
Distance between Foci
5,083,000 km
5. The eccentricity of Earth's orbit is less than the eccentricity of the four ellipses I drew.
6. The Earth's orbit is more round. I know this because the lesser the number, the more rounder the circle would be.
7. Mercury has an eccentricity most similar to the ellipses I drew.
8. If I was to draw the Earth's orbit, a star would be one of the foci.
9.
Upon completion of this lab exercise, I was able to:
1- Define the words: eccentricity, ellipse, and foci.
2- Calculate the eccentricity of an ellipse.
3- Describe how eccentricity of changes as the distance between foci changes.
4- Explain Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion.
5- Describe how Earth's orbit compares to any given eccentrical orbit.
6- Describe the shape of an ellipse with an eccentricity of 0.00 or 1.00.
7- Give an example of a celestial object with a highly eccentric
Earth Science A2
5/28/14
ECCENTRICITY LAB REPORT
Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion: The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at one of the foci. The purpose of this lab is to demonstrate Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion by calculating the eccentricity of ellipses. The 3 main words that were important in this lab exercise was eccentricity, ellipse, and foci. Eccentricity means the degree of ovalness of an ellipse or how far an ellipse is from being a circle. Ellipse is a closed curve around two points in which the sum of the distances between any point of the curve and the foci is a constant. And lastly, foci is either of two fixed points located so that the sum of their distances to any point on the ellipse is constant. The materials used in this lab were a ruler, a calculator, cotton …show more content…
Of the four ellipses I drew, Ellipse 1 is most similar in eccentricity to the Earth's orbit because Ellipse 1 has an eccentricity of 0.111, and Earth has an eccentricity of 0.017.
4. The eccentricity of Earth's orbit:
Length of Major Axis
299,000,000 km
Distance between Foci
5,083,000 km
5. The eccentricity of Earth's orbit is less than the eccentricity of the four ellipses I drew.
6. The Earth's orbit is more round. I know this because the lesser the number, the more rounder the circle would be.
7. Mercury has an eccentricity most similar to the ellipses I drew.
8. If I was to draw the Earth's orbit, a star would be one of the foci.
9.
Upon completion of this lab exercise, I was able to:
1- Define the words: eccentricity, ellipse, and foci.
2- Calculate the eccentricity of an ellipse.
3- Describe how eccentricity of changes as the distance between foci changes.
4- Explain Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion.
5- Describe how Earth's orbit compares to any given eccentrical orbit.
6- Describe the shape of an ellipse with an eccentricity of 0.00 or 1.00.
7- Give an example of a celestial object with a highly eccentric