Kepler's Law

pler's law
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phy s
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Johannes Kepler, a
German astronomer who
was born in Weil der
Stadt, Württemberg
(Germany), on December
27, 1571, and died in
Regensburg on November
15, 1630, is credited with Johannes Kepler
discovering three major 1571-1630
laws of planetary motion.
kepler's tHREE
lawS of planetary
motion
First Law:
each planet's orbit about the Sun is an ellipse.
An ellipse is a curve in
The major axis is the
which the total of the longest diameter of the
distances between two ellipse, whereas the minor
points on the curve (f1 axis is the shortest
and f2) is constant. diameter of the ellipse.
The semi-major axis is the
Eccentricity describes length of an ellipse's
the circularity of an longest radius, while the
ellipse or orbit. An semi-minor axis is the
ellipse's eccentricity length of the shortest
range is only between radius of an ellipse.
zero and one.
Second Law:
a planet covers the same in the same amount of time no matter
where it is in its orbit
It implies that planets do Kepler's second law

not travel along their orbits characterizes the
at constant speed. velocity of a planet
along its elliptical
Thus, suppose that it takes path.
the planet the same amount
of time to go between It says that a line
positions C and D as it did running from the Sun
for the planet to go between to the planet sweeps
positions A and B. out equal areas of the
ellipse in equal times.
Second Law: EXAMPLE
THE PICTURE BELOW DEPICTS THE ELLIPTICAL ORBIT OF
A PLANET ABOUT THR SUN.
1 2 3
4 5 6
Third Law:
the squares of the orbital periods of the planets are directly
proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes of their
orbits.
Kepler's Third Law implies

that the period for a planet
The semi-major axis
to orbit the Sun increases
determines various
rapidly with the radius of
properties of the
its orbit. Thus we find that
orbit such as orbital
Mercury, the innermost
energy and orbital
planet, takes only 88 days
period. As the semi-
to orbit the Sun.
major axis increases,
so does the orbital
The square of the period of
energy and the
any planet is proportional
orbital period.
to the cube of the
semimajor axis of its orbit.
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an
English mathematician, physicist,
astronomer, alchemist, theologian,
and author, widely recognized as
one of the greatest
mathematicians and physicists
and among the most influential
scientists of all time. Among
Newton's most renowned works is
the theory of universal
gravitation--or gravity--which Isaac Newton
1643 - 1727
holds that a universal force of
attraction exists between all
matter.
law of
gravitation
Though Kepler hadn't known about gravitation when
he came up with his three laws, they were
instrumental in Isaac Newton deriving his theory of
universal gravitation.

Newton's Law of Gravitation states that any particle of

matter in the universe attracts any other with a force
varying directly as the product of the masses and
inversely as the square of the distance between them.

This theory explains the unknown force behind

Kepler's Third Law. Kepler and his theories were
crucial in the better understanding of our solar
system.
newton's ways of
describing motion:
I. NEWTON USED THE METHOD OF
SPECIFYING AN OBJECT'S POSITION AT
DIFFERENT TIMES TO DESCRIBE ITS MOTION.
Motion can be described

by specifying the object's
position at different time
frames.
As an example, consider
planetary orbit.
II. NEWTON USED THE OBJECT'S VELOCITY.
For a planet moving along an

VELOCITY: orbit, we can find its velocity
by dividing the distance
the change of position with traveled by the time it takes to
respect to change in time travel that certain distance.
always specified by both

value and direction v=d/t
III. NEWTON USED THE OBJECT'S
ACCELERATION.
ACCELERATION:
Uniform Circular Motion
describes the rate of
change of velocity The speed is constant in
this motion, but the
doesn't necessarily have direction is changing
to be in the same continuously.
Understanding the Solar System is the
direction as the velocity case of Uniform Circular Motion
III. NEWTON USED THE OBJECT'S
ACCELERATION.
Centripetal Acceleration
the acceleration of
circular motion
it is always the direction
of the center circle

2
A=v/R

Kepler's Law

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Kepler's Law

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pler's law

It implies that planets do Kepler's second law

Kepler's Third Law implies

Newton's Law of Gravitation states that any particle of

This theory explains the unknown force behind

Motion can be described

For a planet moving along an

always specified by both

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