Study Questions Week 2

Chapter 2

What are Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion? What does each one mean?

Define aphelion and perihelion.

Explain the terms semi-major axis and eccentricity.

How do you draw an ellipse? Know how to determine the semi-major axis, the eccentricity, perihelion and aphelion from a drawing of an ellipse representing a planetary orbit.

How did Newton modify Kepler’s third law?

According to Newton, how does the gravitational force between two objects depend on the masses and on the distance between them?

How do we determine the mass of objects in the solar system?

What quantity does your weight represent?

What is escape speed?

Know the units used for Kepler’s third law in both forms.

Review and Discussion Chapter 2: 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20

Study questions from other weeks:

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