Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion Lab

Source: Glencoe Division of Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

Purpose: After this lab, students will be able to

1. State and understand Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.

2. Define the parts of an ellipse and construct an ellipse.
3. Calculate eccentricity of an ellipse.
4. Use a planet's eccentricity to construct its orbit.
5. Use Kepler's third law to calculate the period of revolution or the measure of the semimajor
axis.
6. Learn how varying the length of the string alters the shape of the ellipse.

Background Information: Kepler's first law states that the orbits of the planets and other celestial
bodies around the Sun are ellipses. An ellipse is defined as a figure drawn around two points
called the foci such that the distance from one focus to any point on the figure back to the
other focus equals a constant.

This constant is the measure of the long diameter of the ellipse,

the major axis. Half of this segment is called the semimajor axis. The short diameter, the minor axis,
is a perpendicular bisector of the major axis. Half of the minor axis is called the semiminor axis. For
planets, the Sun is at one focus, nothing is at the other.

The eccentricity of an ellipse is a measure of its flatness. Numerically, it is the distance between the
foci divided by the length of the major axis. The following is a series of ellipses having the same major
axis but different eccentricities:

As the eccentricity
approaches 1, the ellipse approaches a straight line. As the eccentricity approaches 0, the foci come
closer together and the ellipse becomes more circular. A circle has an eccentricity of zero.

Kepler's second law states that a line from the planet to

the Sun sweeps over equal areas in equal amounts of time.
These areas in the ellipse are called sectors. In the
following diagram, as the planet moves from point A to
point B along its orbit, a long, skinny sector is created.
If we wanted to create a sector of equal area at points closer to the Sun (points C and D), the result
is a short, fat sector. According to Kepler, the time it takes for the planet to get from A to B is equal
to the time it takes the planet to get from C to D. This means that a planet orbits slower as it moves
further from the Sun.

Kepler's third law deals with the length of time a planet takes to orbit the Sun, called the period of
revolution. The law states that the square of the period of revolution is proportional to the cube of
the planet's average distance to the sun:

T2=r3
(since k = 1 for Earth and therefore all other planets orbiting the Sun)

Because of the way a planet moves along its orbit, its average distance from the Sun is half of the
long diameter of the elliptical orbit (the semimajor axis.) The period, T, is measured in years and the
semimajor axis, r, is measured in astronomical units (AU), the average distance from the Earth to the
Sun.

Materials: thumbtacks string cardboard (21.5 cm x 28 cm)

metric ruler pencil paper

Procedure: Part A

1. Place a blank sheet of paper on top of the cardboard and place two thumbtacks or pins about
3 cm apart.
2. Tie the string into a circle with a circumference of 15 to 20 cm. Loop the string around the
thumbtacks. With someone holding the tacks or pins, place a pencil inside the loop and pull it
taut.
3. Move the pen or pencil around the tacks, keeping the string taut, until you have completed a
smooth, closed curve or an ellipse.
4. Repeat Steps 1 though 3 several times. Make note of what happens in each of the following
two cases. *****However, change only one of these each time. Note the effect on the size and
shape of the ellipse with each of these changes in the observations section.
a) First vary the distance between the tacks.
b) Then vary the circumference of the string.
5. Orbits are usually described in terms of eccentricity (e) The eccentricity of any ellipse is
determined by dividing the distance ( d ) between the foci or tacks by the length of the major
axis (L). Measure and record (d) and (L) for each ellipse you created in Table 1.
6. Calculate and record the eccentricity of the ellipses that you constructed in Table 1.

Part B
1. Refer to the chart of eccentricities of planetary orbits to construct an ellipse with
the same eccentricity as Earth's orbit. Fill in your chart.

Planet Eccentricity

Mercury 0.21

Venus 0.01

Earth 0.02

Mars 0.09

Jupiter 0.05

Saturn 0.06

Uranus 0.05

Neptune 0.01

Pluto 0.25

2. Repeat Step 1 with the orbit of Pluto and Mercury. Fill in your chart.
Data and Observations

4. a) Vary the distance between the tacks. b) Vary the circumference of the string.

Observations: Observations:

Table 1: (Part A and B)

Constructed d L e
ellipse (cm) (cm) (d/L)
#1 (original)
#2 (4.a)
#3 (4.b)
Earth's orbit (part B)
Mercury's orbit (part B)
Pluto's orbit (part B)

Analyze:

1. What effect does a change in the length of the string or the distance between the tacks
have on the shape of the ellipse?

2. What must be done to the string or placement of tacks to decrease the eccentricity of the
constructed ellipse?

Conclude and Apply

1. Describe the shape of Earth's orbit. Where is the Sun located within the orbit?

2. Name the planets that have the most eccentric orbits.

3. Using Kepler's third law and the (L) from your chart for Earth, Mercury, and Pluto, calculate
the period of revolution for these three planets. (Possible test question…)

4. An example for using this formula would be to calculate how long it takes the near-Earth asteroid
called Eros to orbit the Sun (so the same k value). The closest distance to the Sun that Eros orbits is
1.13 AU, and the farthest away from the Sun that it orbits is 1.78 AU. So, the average distance from
Eros to the Sun, the semimajor axis, is (1.13 + 1.78)/2 = 1.46 AU.

How long does it take Eros to orbit the Sun? (Possible test question)
5. Draw a line connecting each law on the left with a description of it on the right.

6. The ellipse to the right has an eccentricity of about…

a) 0.25 c) 0.75
b) 0.5 d) 0.9

7. For a planet in an elliptical orbit to “sweep out equal areas in equal

amounts of time” it must…

a) move slowest when near the sun b) move fastest when near the sun
c) move at the same speed at all times d) have a perfectly circular orbit

8. Halley’s comet has a semimajor axis of about 18.5 AU, a period of 76 years, and an eccentricity of
about 0.97. The orbit of Halley’s Comet, the Earth’s Orbit, and the Sun are shown in the diagram
below (not exactly to scale). Based upon what you know about Kepler’s 2 nd Law, explain why we can only
see the comet for about 6 months every orbit (76 years)?

9. As the size of a planet’s orbit increases, what happens to its period?

10. Does changing the eccentricity of a planet change the period of the planet?