Mission CG10 Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Hold down the T key for 3 seconds to activate the audio accessibility mode, at which point you can click the K key to pause and resume audio. Useful for the Check Your Understanding and See Answers.
Kepler's second law of planetary motion states that a line connecting a planet to the Sun ____. Choose one.
Kepler's Law of Equal Areas:
Kepler's law of equal areas proposed that if an imaginary line connected a planet and the sun, then the line would move as the planet moved along its elliptical path. As the imaginary line moved, it would sweep out an area. The line would sweep out equal areas in equal amounts of time. Since the planet's orbit is elliptical, it is not always the same distance from the sun at all times during its orbit. For the area to be the same amount during all time periods, the planet must move faster along its orbital path when it is closest to the sun.
Kepler's law of equal areas proposed that if an imaginary line connected a planet and the sun, then the line would move as the planet moved along its elliptical path. As the imaginary line moved, it would sweep out an area. The line would sweep out equal areas in equal amounts of time. Since the planet's orbit is elliptical, it is not always the same distance from the sun at all times during its orbit. For the area to be the same amount during all time periods, the planet must move faster along its orbital path when it is closest to the sun.
