Gravity, Orbits and Kepler’s Laws

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To learn how the shape and period of a planet orbiting a star depend on the mass
of the star and the mass of the planet
• To learn how the shape of the orbit depends on the speed and orbital radius of the
planet.
• To observe Kepler’s laws

INTRODUCTION

Planets or other objects orbiting a star are accelerating -- they are continually changing
direction. The force that produces this acceleration is the gravitational attraction to the
star. In this activity we will use a simulation to observe and learn about these orbits and
relate them to Kepler’s laws.

PROCEDURE

Go to http://phet.colorado.edu, click on “play with sims,” then click “physics” and open
the “Gravity and Orbits” simulation.

Use the “cartoon” tab. The settings on the right should be for Earth and Our Sun. Begin
the activity with original values. Hit Reset if they’ve shifted. Click on: Gravity Force,
Velocity, Path and Grid.

Follow all the procedures described below. Write answers on a separate sheet or enter
your descriptions and answers directly below the questions using italics or bold.
Descriptions and answers must be in complete sentences.

1. Note that the blue force arrow on Earth is the same size as the blue force arrow on
the Sun. Why is this so? What law(s) is (are) being illustrated?

R/ In this exercise the universal law of gravitation is used, since the two bodies
are attracted with a force that is proportional to the more of the bodies and is
inversely proportional to the square of their distances.

2. Hit the start arrow and observe the path.

2a. Describe the shape of the orbit.

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 Image 1. Orbit.

R/ The software describes a circular orbit between the sun and the planet, the sun
being the center of rotation, although in real life the trajectory drawn by the
planets form an ellipse, with the sun being one of the foci of the ellipse.

2b. Which of Kepler’s laws did this illustrate? (State the law – don’t simply give
the number of the law.)

R/ "Each planet moves around the sun in an ellipse, with the sun in one of the
foci"
the foci of the ellipse.

2c. Measure the time for one period of revolution. (You may have to practice
stopping at “one period” and you may want to slow the Sim speed.)

Image 2. Period.

In this exercise it is shown that the period that the earth uses to complete a period
around 365 days is terrestrial (image 2), after this time it will return to the position
where the simulator started.

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3. Slide the “Planet” selector to the left. You will be maintaining the distance to
the Sun but replacing Earth with a planet having a smaller mass.
3a. Before hitting start, what changes do you notice? Why do think things
changed?

Image 3. Change of planet.

The first impression shows that the force of attraction between these two objects.
This is due to the law of gravitation, since as its mass is smaller, the applied force
will be proportional to this mass.

3b. Hit start and carefully observe the orbit and determine the period.

Image 4. Period new planet.

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 Image 5.Period new planet.

For this exercise I expected that the planet will take much longer to complete this period,
but in the observed it is seen that it takes exactly the same to complete its period. The
justification I find in the law of gravitation where it speaks of the force of attraction is
inversely proportional to the square of its distances, therefore I deduce that this result of
different masses but with the same distance is due to said aforementioned law, where by
having the same distance will have the same force of attraction.

RESET

4. Slide the “Planet” selector to the right – maintaining the distance to the Sun but
replacing Earth with a planet with a larger mass.
4a. Before hitting start, what changes do you notice? Why do think things
changed? What law(s) is being illustrated?

Image 6. Planet larger mass.

The change that more remarkable to the naked eye is the magnitude of the force
of gravitation between these two objects (image 6, blue arrows), where being of

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 greater mass will have a greater force, this is evidence of the application of the
law of gravitation.

4b. Hit start and carefully observe the orbit and determine the period.

Image 7. Planet larger mass period.

Image 8. Planet larger mass determination of period.

In this case, due to having a greater mass, its orbital period will be equal to those
previously seen, since its distance has not been modified and its force of attraction
will be equal.

4c.What do you learn from your measurements in parts 2,3 and 4?

During this procedure I have seen that although the mass is altered, but the
distance is left equal, its period will be exactly the same, since for this distance
there will be a field of attraction that delays 365 Earth days (see images 3, 5, 8).

RESET

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Slide the “star” tab one notch to the right, thus replacing the Sun with a star of greater
mass.
5a. Before hitting start, what changes do you notice?
• Why do think things changed?
• What law(s) is being illustrated?

Image 9. Star larger mass.

It is evidenced by the size of the gravitational attraction force, which increased

noticeably, in addition to this the speed force was also altered, expanding much more
than in the previous points. The law applied here, is the law of classical physics called
Law of gravitation, since, the greater the mass, the greater the force.

5b. Hit start and carefully observe the orbit and determine the period.

Image 10. Determination of period, star larger mass.

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 In this exercise the speed increased and therefore his period was altered, making it
much faster, in this example it only took between 199 to 201 Earth days to
complete his period.

5c. Carefully observe the speed (the length of the velocity arrow). Describe what
you observe about the speed at different locations in the orbit. Which of Kepler’s
laws did this illustrate? (State the law – don’t simply give the number of the law.)

Image 11. Velocity in orbit distinct.

In this case the law of Kepler used is the third where it says that:
"The squares of the periods of any planets are proportional to the cubes of the
major semiaxis of their respective orbits." This infers that the closer a planet is to
the sun or a large star, the faster this planet travels.

5d. Carefully observe the force vector. Describe what you observe about the force at
different locations in the orbit. Why do you think the force changes? Which of Newton’s
laws did this illustrate?

In the observed the applied law will be the second law of Newton, where it tells us that
the speed of an object will depend on the force applied to it and in this case the force
applied will be that of gravitation.

In conclusion…
Summarize what you learned from this activity by:
a. listing the key scientific terms encountered in the activity.

• Gravitational force: This law states that bodies, by the simple fact
of having mass, experience a force of attraction towards other
bodies with mass, called gravitational force or gravitational force.

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 • Orbit: Curve that describes a body around another in space,
especially a planet, comet, satellite etc., as a result of the action of
the force of gravity.

• Period: Space of time during which an action is carried out or an

event takes place.

Additional Questions

1. T/F explain your choice based on your observations in this activity: Earth is
accelerating.

True. The earth accelerates as it approaches the sun, according to Kepler's third law.

2. Earth exerts a gravitational force on the Sun and the Sun exerts a gravitational force
on Earth.

a. Which exerts the larger force? Explain your choice.

The sun will exert a greater force, since the force exerted is proportional to the
mass of each body.

b. Which has the greater acceleration? Explain your choice.

The earth will be the only one to have acceleration, since the sun is the "center" of
the universe and its gravitational field causes the planets to move around it.

3. Imagine another solar system with a star of the same mass as the Sun. In this solar
system there is a planet with a mass twice that of Earth orbiting at a distance of 1 AU
from the star. What is the orbital period of that planet? Explain your answer based
on what you observed in this activity.

1 year.

The planet's mass is so small compared to the star's mass that it has essentially no
effect on the planet's orbit. (We know this from Newton's version of Kepler's third
law.) The fact that the planet has the same orbital distance as Earth therefore
means it must have the same orbital period as Earth.

4. T/F explain your choice based on your observations in this activity:

Doubling the mass of the Sun would have no effect on the period of Earth.

False. The experience in this work, showed that if it were to increase more of the
sun, the bodies travel with greater speed.

5. As a planet orbits the Sun in an ellipse, at what point on the ellipse is the Sun’s

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gravitational force on it greatest? Explain your reasoning. At what point is the
acceleration the greatest? Explain.

The force of gravity is greatly influenced by the distance between two objects. In
an elliptical orbit, when a planet is at its furthest from the Sun, it is under the least
amount of gravity, which means that the force of gravity is strongest when it is
closest. This also applies to acceleration, which means that a planet is accelerating
more when it is closer to the sun. That's because the orbit of a planet around the
Sun (or a satellite around a planet) is not a perfect circle. It is an ellipse, a
"flattened" circle. The Sun (or the center of the planet) occupies a focus of the
ellipse. A focus is one of the two internal points that help determine the shape of
an ellipse. The distance from one focus to any point of the ellipse and then back to
the second focus is always the same.

Sebastián Cristóbal Adolfo Salinas Gamboa

20171025086