Paraphrase a Lab Report on planets and orbits for a physics discussion
Subject
Science
Question Description
Graded Assignment
Lab Report for Discussion
Answer the following questions before you participate in the discussion. Note: You will not turn in this report to your teacher.
1. Look at the shape of Mercury’s orbit. Is it a circle? (The polar graph paper is a perfect circle.)
2. If the shape of Mercury’s orbit is not a circle, then how would you describe the shape? Does it have a geometric name?
3. Where is the position of the sun within the orbit? Is it at the center? If not, how would you describe the sun’s location?
Answer:
Mercury's orbit isn't a circle. It actually has an egg-like shape. It's geometric name would be an ellipse. The sun's position within the orbit isn't at the center. It is located at one of the foci of the ellipse. The focus of an ellipse is a point that isn't the center but located some distance away from the center and close to the vertex or edge of the ellipse. From it's location its closest vertex is 0.31 AU away and the farthest vertex is 0.47 AU away.
4. How far away from the sun was Mercury at aphelion? On what day did aphelion occur?
5. How far away from the sun was Mercury at perihelion? On what day did it occur?
6. How many days elapsed between aphelion and perihelion? What percent of the time to complete one orbit was this?
7. What was the average radius of Mercury in its orbit that you calculated? How does it compare to the accepted value of 0.387 AU? Calculate the percent error using the following equation. Show your work.