Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Kepler's Laws

Why did Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion change the way that we look at Pluto?

7 comments:

Kelli said...

1.Each planet travels in an elliptical orbit around the sun and the sun is at one of the focal points
2.An imaginary line drawn from the sun to any planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals.
3.The square of a planet’s orbital period (T2) is proportional to the cube of the average distance (r3) between the planet and the sun. Since Pluto is farther away from the sun is will have a greater orbital period. The laws desribe the motion of the planets in our Solar System.

tony said...

Kepler's laws tell us the orbit of the planets. And it shows us that the planets have elliptical orbits comparing to how far away they are from the sun. Since Pluto is so far away, it will have a great orbital period.

Kelli said...

These laws proved that Pluto is not a planet and called it a dwarf planet. It does not stay at a consistant speed which breaks the second law, and it crosses Neptune's orbital path which goes against the third law.

Robb8952 said...

Kepler's Laws tells us how the planets orbit around the sun. It states that each planet travels in an ellipitical orbit around the sun and the sun is at one of the focal points. Because Pluto is so far away then it will have a greater orbital period comapare to the other planets.

Andy R said...

It changed because it did not follow his laws of planitary motion. It would spin faster when farthest away from sun and even mix with neptunes orbit. Both something that is not stated in his laws.

allison said...

Kepler's first law states that each planet travels in an elliptical orbit around the sun and the sun is at one of it's focal points. Pluto's orbit is not regular like the rest of the planet's orbits. It crosses with Neptune's orbit and also is known for speeding up during certain times of it's orbit which makes it inconsistent.

Kimberly said...

The first law makes pluto not a planet b/c it crosses the path of Neptune. The second b/c it changes speeds at different times in its orbit. The third b/c it isnt going in the same shape of rotation as everything else.