Name: Gr.

& Sec: Date:

Quarter 2 Week 2 Lesson 3

Laws of Planetary Motion
Activity 2: Moving Planets

Objectives:

Materials: cardboard, pencil, 2 push pins, yarn, ruler, bond paper

I. Drawing an Ellipse and Calculating Eccentricity: Kepler’s First Law of Planetary

Motion Directions:
1. Gather a piece of cardboard, two push pins, and a piece of string about 25 centimeters long. Tie your string
in a loop.
2. Place your paper on the cardboard and put your push pins in the middle of the page length wise. The push
pins should be about 10 centimeters apart.
3. Put your loop of string over the ends of the push pins. Draw the loop tight with the tip of your pencil and
form a triangle with your string. Keep the loop tight and draw an ellipse. (You may ask assistance from a
family member to keep the push pins in place while you are drawing)
4. Remove the string and push pins from your paper.
5. Label each hole made by the push pins “focus 1” and “focus 2”.
6. Choose one of the foci and label it “Sun.” Choose a place on the outline of your ellipse and place a dot
there. Label the dot with a planet name of your choice.
7. Find the point on the outline of the ellipse that is closest to the dot that you made the Sun. Label this point
“Perihelion.”
8. Find the point on the outline of the ellipse that is farthest from the dot that you made the Sun. Label this
point “Aphelion.”
9. Put an “X” directly in the center of our ellipse exactly halfway between the two foci.
10. Draw a line from the x to the dot that you denoted as the sun. Label this line as “c.”
11. Draw another line from the “X” through the focus that does not denote the Sun and all the way to the point
that you denoted “Aphelion.” Label this line as “a.” In math, we call this line the “semimajor axis.” It is
similar to the radius of a circle.
12. Eccentricity is the measurement of how stretched out an ellipse is. It ranges from zero to one. Zero is the
eccentricity of a circle and one is the eccentricity of a straight line. Calculate the value of the eccentricity for
the ellipse you drew by measuring the length of line “c” and measuring the length of line “a.” Calculate the
eccentricity of the ellipse by taking “c” and dividing it by “a” using the following formula: e = c/a. Show your
work on your ellipse drawing.
13. On this same page, write down what you think this suggests about Kepler’s First Law.

II. Calculating Eccentricity of the Planets’

Orbits Directions:
1. Calculate the eccentricity of each planet by using the formula e = c/a. Recreate this table in your notebook
and fill in the values for (e).

Distance from center of

Semi-Major Axis in
Planet ellipse to focus in Eccentricity (a)
Astronomical Units (a)
Astronomical Units (c)
Mercury 0.080 0.387
Venus 0.005 0.723
Earth 0.017 1.00
Mars 0.142 1.524
Jupiter 0.250 5.203
Saturn 0.534 9.540
Uranus 0.901 19.180
Neptune 0.271 30.060
Pluto 9.821 39.440

ATDCP-2022
 2. Answer the following guide questions in complete sentences.
a. Which of the planet’s orbits is the most eccentric? Assume that Pluto is still a planet for this question.
b. Which of the planet’s orbits is the least eccentric (closest to a circle’s eccentricity of zero)? Assume that
Pluto is still a planet for this question.
c. Which two planets have the most similar eccentricity?
d. Which planet has an eccentricity most similar to Earth’s eccentricity?
e. The average eccentricity of the Moon’s orbit around the earth is 0.054900489. Would you say the
eccentricity of the Moon’s orbit is low, medium, or high with respect to most of the planets’ orbits around
the Sun?
f. How could the eccentricity of a planet’s orbit affect the amount of solar radiation it receives from the sun?

III. Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion

Directions:
1. Watch again the animation used in the presentation. How does the speed of all three planets’ orbits at
perihelion compare to the speed of the planet’s orbit at aphelion? In your answer use the words
“perihelion” and “aphelion” while answering in a complete sentences.
2. Look at the diagram below. Count the number of squares in sector 1 and in sector 2, then place this
diagram and your count in your answer sheet.
3. What can you say about the number of squares in
Sector 1 compared to the number of squares in Sector
2? What does the number of squares imply about each
sector’s area?
4. If it takes the same amount of time for a planet to move
from point A to point B as it does for a planet to move
from point C to point D, then what must a planet do in
terms of its speed in each sector? Speed equals distance
over time. Note that the distance between A and B is
shorter than the distance between C and D.
5. Based on what you have seen here, complete the
statement: Kepler’s Second Law says that planets sweep out equal in equal . To
do this, planets when closer to the Sun and they _ when
further from the Sun.

IV. Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion

Directions:
1. Analyze the table below and answer the questions that follow.

Mean Orbital Velocity Mean Orbital Distance from the Sun

Planet
(km/s) (AU)
Mercury 47.87 0.39
Venus 35.02 0.72
Earth 29.79 1.00
Mars 24.13 1.52
Jupiter 13.07 5.20
Saturn 9.67 9.54
Uranus 6.84 19.19
Neptune 5.48 30.07
Pluto 4.75 39.48

2. How does the distance from the Sun of a planet affect the planet’s orbital velocity? In other words, do
planets that are farther from the Sun travel faster or do they travel slower?
3. Based on your response to number 1, what do you think Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion say?

ATDCP-2022