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Lecture
11A |
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| Lecture 11A: Arrays, Printing & Images |
Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion
Law 1: Each planet revolves around the Sun in an elliptical path, with the Sun occupying one of the foci of the e
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Watch the motion of the satellite. It traces out an elliptical orbit about the Earth. The elliptical orbit has the shape of a "squashed" circle, although there is a precise mathematical equation that describes it. The Earth is off-center, namely at one of the foci of the ellipse.
Move the arrow in the bar on the right up or down. This changes the eccentricity, or shape, of the elliptical orbit. An eccentricity of zero (when the arrow is at the bottom of the bar) means the orbit is a circle. An eccentricity closer to one means the orbit is more elongated.
If you move the arrow into the yellow part of the bar, the satellite comes very near to crashing into the Earth during its closest approach. If you move the arrow into the red part of the bar, the satellite will actually crash.
Note that the sizes of the Earth, satellite, and orbit are not drawn to realistic scales.
Comments to: Observatorium
Curator (curator@rspac.ivv.nasa.gov)
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