Orbital Energy

This activity shows a plot of energy vs radius for an orbiting object. Kinetic, potential, and total energies are shown. You can vary the eccentricity and semimajor axis of the orbit to see what happens to the energies. Also, you can overlay the orbit itself onto the plot, as seen from the reference frame of the planet-sun line.

 

Keith Harrison

 
Resource Type
Activity
Tags
astronomy  physics  tutorial 
Target Group (Age)
13 – 19+
Language
English
 
 
 
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