Jan. 19-22

Last week we did an orbital simulation to learn about orbit. The 3 independent variables were initial speed, initial distance, and initial direction. The 2 dependent variables were whether or not the smaller planet impacted wit the larger planet and the time it took to make one revolution. We made data tables with 20 trials.

Then we discussed some of the ideas that we had about orbits. There are 2 massive objects. There is some initial velocity that gets it going. If it is to slow it will crash and if it is too fast it will just"fly away". Initial distance also has an effect. If too close we need a higher initial velocity and if too far away we need a lower initial velocity. It's like magnets. The sun's force is greater when closer. The initial velocity arrow has to be perpendicular to the sun's force.