Honors Physics

Keplers Laws
09.3N

I. Introduction to planetary motion

The motion of the planets becomes much simpler when described in a frame of
reference in which the sun is at rest. Relative to the sun, the trajectories of all planets
follow three laws formulated by Johannes Kepler at the end of the sixteenth century. Kepler
was an assistant to Tycho Brahe, a Danish nobleman who was known for his accurate and
comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. Upon the death of Brahe, Kepler
used the data that Brahe had collected over his lifetime to formulate his 3 Laws of
Plenetary Motion. Kepler only described the regular motion of the planets, he offered no
explanation for their motion.
II. Keplers 3 Laws of Planetary Motion:
1. Law of Elipses: Each planet moves with an elliptical path with the sun at one focus.
(Actually, the ellipses are so close to circles that we can take half the sum of the longest
and shortest distances between the sun and a planet and treat it as the radius R of a
circular orbit, for most purposes.)

2. Law of Areas: The line joining the sun and the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal
times. (See figure.)

3. Law of Periods: The quotient of the cube of the radius of a planets orbit and the square
of the time of one revolution around the sun is the same for all planets. If the radius is
denoted as R and the period is denoted T, then
(R3 / T2) = K where K is a constant for
any system.

Ex1: How fast, in m2/s, is the area swept out by the radius
from the sun to the earth per second? The average orbital
radius of the earth to the sun is 1.50x10 11m.

Ex2: The above table does not include Uranus or Neptune. What value do you predict for
the ratio (R3 / T2) for each of the planets?

Honors Physics
Keplers Laws
09.3N

Ex3: If a small planet were discovered whose distance from the sun was 8.00 times that of
earth, how many times longer would it take to circle the sun?

Ex4: Astronomers have observed that Halleys comet has a period of 75.0 years and that
its smallest distance from the sun is 8.91 x 1010 m, but its greatest distance from the sun
cannot be measured because it cannot be seen. Use this information and Keplers laws
(especially the information in parentheses after the first law statement above) to compute
its greatest distance from the sun. (Note: It was Newton who told Halley how to compute
the orbit of a comet. Halley found and calculated the orbit and period of the comet that
now bears his name in the course of the general analysis that he made of comets orbits.)

Ex5: (a) What is the speed of the moon around the sun compared to the earth around the
sun?
(b) If the earth could be removed suddenly without disturbing the motion of the moon,
what would be the subsequent path of the moon?
(c) Calculate the ratio of the force of attraction exerted by the sun on the moon to the
force exerted by the earth on the moon.
(d) Why does the sun not capture the moon, taking it away from the earth?