Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course List)
14th Edition
ISBN: 9781305960961
Author: Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Textbook Question
Chapter 4, Problem 5LTL
Mercury’s orbit hardly deviates from a circle, but you can tell that it is not a circle with just a glance at Figure 4-7. What gives it away? (Hint: Consider the location of the Sun.)
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Students have asked these similar questions
When the Earth passes directly between the Sun and Mars, the Earth and Mars are closest to each other. If Mars is 1.52 AU from the Sun and there are 1.5 x 108 km in 1 AU, how many times will the width of
the U.S. (2,530 miles) fit end-to-end between Mars and Earth?
Planets and Sun not drawn to
scale.
Mars
Earth
Sun
Part 1 of 4
Mars is 1.52 AU from the Sun. How many times further away from the Sun is Mars than the Earth? (The distances in AU are relative to the distance between the Sun and the Earth, so however many AU a
planet is away from the Sun is how many times farther it is from Sun than Earth.)
1.52✔
1.52 times further away
Measure the periods for each planet.
Measure the orbital radius of each planet.
Calculate the ratios of square of the periods and cubed of the radii for the planets.
Compare the results and comment if your result confirms Kepler's Third Law.
(Pic1 has the yellow and bluw planets points plotted. Pic2 has the grey and red planet plots listed.)
Suppose, we recently discovered a new planet named Concordia. If for 15 degrees
difference, the distance between Cansae City and and Cantabrigia City would have
been 6050 stadia. According to Erasthosthenes' calculation, what would have been
the circumference of Concordia?
5.45E5 stadia
2.45E5 stadia
4.45E5 stadia
1.45E5 stadia
3.45E5 stadia
Chapter 4 Solutions
Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course List)
Ch. 4 - Why did Greek astronomers conclude that the...Ch. 4 - Why did classical astronomers conclude that Earth...Ch. 4 - How did the Ptolemaic model explain retrograde...Ch. 4 - In what ways were the models of Ptolemy and...Ch. 4 - Why did the Copernican hypothesis win gradual...Ch. 4 - Why is it difficult for scientists to replace an...Ch. 4 - Why did Tycho Brahe expect the new star of 1572 to...Ch. 4 - How was Tycho’s model of the Universe similar to...Ch. 4 - Explain how Kapler’s lows contradict uniform...Ch. 4 - What is the difference between a hypothesis ,...
Ch. 4 - How did The Alfonsine Tables, The Prutenic Tables,...Ch. 4 - Review Galileo’s telescopic discoveries and...Ch. 4 - Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition, but...Ch. 4 - How do Newton’s laws lead you to conclude that...Ch. 4 - Explain why you might describe the orbital motion...Ch. 4 - Prob. 16RQCh. 4 - How Do We know? How would you respond to someone...Ch. 4 - Prob. 18RQCh. 4 - How Do We Know? Why is it important that a...Ch. 4 - Science historian Thomas Kuhn has said that De...Ch. 4 - Many historians suspect that Galileo offended Pope...Ch. 4 - Prob. 3DQCh. 4 - If you lived on Mars, which planets would describe...Ch. 4 - Galileo’s telescope showed him that Venus has a...Ch. 4 - Galileo’s telescopes were not of high quality by...Ch. 4 - If a planet had an average distance from the Sun...Ch. 4 - If a space probe were sent into an orbit around...Ch. 4 - Neptune orbits the Sun with a period of 164.8...Ch. 4 - Venus’s average distance from the Sun is 0.72 AU...Ch. 4 - The circular velocity of Earth around the Sun is...Ch. 4 - What is the orbital velocity of an Earth satellite...Ch. 4 - Prob. 1LTLCh. 4 - Prob. 2LTLCh. 4 - Why is it a little bit misleading to say that this...Ch. 4 - Prob. 4LTLCh. 4 - Mercury’s orbit hardly deviates from a circle, but...
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- How many precession periods are in one cycle of Earths axis inclination variation? In one cycle of Earths orbit eccentricity variation? In the time span shown in Figure 2-11b, how many periods or fractions of periods did the Earths axis precess, nod, and Earths orbit change shape? Of the three periods, which is likely to have the most effect on the changes shown in Figure 211?arrow_forwardBased Figure 4-13c, do planets with larger a take longer, shorter, or the same time to orbit the Sun?arrow_forwardWhy might Tycho Brahe have hesitated to hire Kepler? Why do you suppose he appointed Kepler his scientific heir? What is limited about Keplers third law P2 = a3, where P is the time in units of years a planet takes to orbit the Sun and a is the planets average distance from the Sun in units of AU? (Hint: Look at the units.) What does this tell you about Kepler and his laws?arrow_forward
- Are the spheres of Eudoxus a scientific model? If so, is it entirely true?arrow_forwardWhen Mercury is at aphelion (farthest from the Sun) in Figure 4-13a, compare a, the semi major axis, to r, the distance from the Sun to Mercury. Is a greater than r, or less than r, or equal to r?arrow_forwardGalileos telescope showed him that Venus has a large angular diameter (61 arc seconds) when it is a crescent and a small angular diameter (10 arc seconds) when it is nearly full. Use the small-angle formula to find the ratio of its maximum to minimum distance from Earth. Is this ratio compatible with the Ptolemaic universe shown in Figure 3b of the Chapter 4 Concept Art: An Ancient Model of the Universe?arrow_forward
- List some reasons that the study of the planets has progressed more in the past few decades than any other branch of astronomy.arrow_forwardA planet's speed in orbit is given by V = (30 km/s)[(2/r)-(1/a)]0.5 where V is the planet's velocity, r is the distance in AU's from the Sun at that instant, and a is the semimajor axis of its orbit. Calculate the Earth's velocity in its orbit (assume it is circular): What is the velocity of Mars at a distance of 1.41 AU from the Sun? What is the spacecraft's velocity when it is 1 AU from the Sun (after launch from the Earth)? What additional velocity does the launch burn have to give to the spacecraft? (i.e. What is the difference between the Earth's velocity and the velocity the spacecraft needs to have?) How fast will the spacecraft be traveling when it reaches Mars? Does the spacecraft need to gain or lose velocity to go into the same orbit as Mars?arrow_forwardPluto’s orbit around the Sun is highly elliptical compared to the planets in our Solar System. It has a perihelion distance of 29.7 AU and an aphelion distance of 49.5 AU. a) What is the semi-major axis of Pluto’s orbit, in AU? b) What is Pluto’s orbital period, in Earth years?arrow_forward
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