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Jody’s Physics Research Project

Jody’s Physics Research Project. A study on the orbital velocities of a binary star system orbited by a single star. Gravity. Some think that money makes the world go ‘round, but they’re wrong. It’s gravity!

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Jody’s Physics Research Project

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  1. Jody’s Physics Research Project A study on the orbital velocities of a binary star system orbited by a single star.

  2. Gravity • Some think that money makes the world go ‘round, but they’re wrong. It’s gravity! • Gravity keeps us on the ground. Gravity keeps the earth rotating around the Sun. And, gravity allows us to see comets up close and personal (not always a good thing).

  3. Binary Star Systems • “Half of all stars in the sky are members of binary systems.” • Binary star systems consist of two stars that orbit around a point called the center of mass.

  4. Common Orbits

  5. One Theory Collapsing Nebula

  6. Consider... • Multiple star systems exist. They are just like binary star systems, but with more stars. • It’s difficult to tell whether a binary system may have a third star orbiting far away. This star is still effected by the systems gravity, but it may take hundreds of years to pass through one orbit. • For example, astronomers hypothesize that our Sun may have a “stellar companion”of low mass beyond Pluto. Cool huh!

  7. My Project • I am interested in looking at a binary system that is orbited by a single star. Specifically, I want to explore the stability of the orbit (by looking at the velocity) as it depends on the distance. B A B A A

  8. F=Gm1m2/r² F=ma=mv²/r Set them equal to each other. Do math. v=½(Gm/r)^½ m=3.00e24kg mB=6.00e24kg G=6.672e-11Nm²/kg² r=2.5e8m The Formula

  9. Important Graph

  10. Conclusion • My hypothesis was that the variation of the velocities would be less as the two systems were placed further apart. • I’m kind of wrong. Looking at the graph, there are two places where the data is inconsistent with this theory.

  11. Why? • Well, I am using a computer simulation. It computes velocities but as it continues through the simulation, it becomes less accurate (or something like that). • The second reason could be experimenter error. I noticed the orbital graphs were not repeating. So, I stopped the simulation when I guessed I had gathered enough data.

  12. Future Plans • I’ll probably try to fix these problems and try again. Or… • I would like to try my original hypothesis which was similar to this one except with two binary systems. • I’m still fascinated by multiple-star systems and would like to continue in that area. It’s a shame I can’t measure the real thing!!

  13. Jody’s Physics Research Project Thank you!

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