1 / 8

Eccentricity

Eccentricity. Lesson Goals. Understand the concept of eccentricity Calculate the eccentricity of a celestial object Understand how gravity and inertia keep celestial objects bound to the Sun

luther
Download Presentation

Eccentricity

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Eccentricity

  2. Lesson Goals • Understand the concept of eccentricity • Calculate the eccentricity of a celestial object • Understand how gravity and inertia keep celestial objects bound to the Sun • Understand why the distance between the earth and Sun varies, and how this causes the earth’s speed to change in its orbit.

  3. What is eccentricity? • Eccentricity describes how elliptical a planet’s path is around the Sun. • Ellipses are circles that have been stretched out: Perfect circle Slightly elliptical Highly elliptical

  4. Parts of an ellipse Major axis   Minor axis Focus

  5. Formula for eccentricityEccentricity = Distance between foci/length of major axisALL MEASUREMENTS ARE MADE IN CM’S! When E = 0  Perfect circle When E = 0.5  Oval (ellipse) When E = 1  Line

  6. Forces that control orbits:gravity and inertia Inertia Gravity Planet Sun at one focus Planet’s motion

  7. Why do planets change speed during their orbits? The planet is close to the Sun, earth moves faster The planet is far from the Sun, earth moves slower

  8. Conclusions • The shape of earth’s orbit around the sun is an ellipse. • Eccentricity measures the degree of ‘ovalness’ of an ellipse. • The elliptical shape of earth’s orbit causes the earth’s distance to the Sun to change. • Gravity and inertia are two forces that keep celestial objects bound to the Sun.

More Related