What does the second law of planetary motion mean?
Kepler’s second law states that a planet moves in its ellipse so that the line between it and the Sun placed at a focus sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
What does Kepler’s 2nd law mean for the planet’s speed along its orbit?
Kepler’s second law of planetary motion describes the speed of a planet traveling in an elliptical orbit around the sun. It states that a line between the sun and the planet sweeps equal areas in equal times. Thus, the speed of the planet increases as it nears the sun and decreases as it recedes from the sun.
What are Kepler’s 3 laws in simple terms?
There are actually three, Kepler’s laws that is, of planetary motion: 1) every planet’s orbit is an ellipse with the Sun at a focus; 2) a line joining the Sun and a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times; and 3) the square of a planet’s orbital period is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its …
What is an example of Kepler’s second law?
Kepler’s Second Law is an example of the principle of conservation of angular momentum for planetary systems. … Consider two points $P$ and $Q$ on the orbit of a planet, separated by avery small distance. Suppose that it takes a small time $dt$ for the planet to move from $P$ to $Q$.
Why is Kepler’s 2nd law important?
Kepler’s Second Law is valuable because it gives a quantitative statement about how fast the object will be moving at any point in its orbit. Note that when the planet is closest to the Sun, at perihelion, Kepler’s Second Law says that it will be moving the fastest.
What is the formula for Kepler’s 2nd law?
“Equal areas in equal times” means the rate at which area is swept out on the orbit (dA/dt) is constant. So Kepler’s Second Law Revised: The rate at which a planet sweeps out area on its orbit is equal to one-half its angular momentum divided by its mass (the specific angular momentum).
What is G in Kepler’s third law?
The Newtonian constant, G, is defined in terms of the force between two two masses separated by some fixed distance. In order to measure k, all you need to do is count days; in order to measure G, you need to know very precisely the masses, separation, and forces between test objects in a laboratory.
What does Newton’s second law state?
Newton’s second law of motion pertains to the behavior of objects for which all existing forces are not balanced. The second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables – the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object.
What is Newton’s version of Kepler’s third law?
Newton developed a more general form of what was called Kepler’s Third Law that could apply to any two objects orbiting a common center of mass. This is called Newton’s Version of Kepler’s Third Law: M1 + M2 = A3 / P2. Special units must be used to make this equation work.
What does Kepler’s law mean?
1 : a statement in astronomy: the orbit of each planet is an ellipse that has the sun at one focus. 2 : a statement in astronomy: the radius vector from the sun to each planet generates equal orbital areas in equal times.
What is the period law?
The Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.