Home Table of Contents About the Authors Glossary Buy This Book Joseph Henry Press


SOLUTIONS TO EXERCISE 30

back to exercise

motion: TOC for Knowledge Concepts, Exercises, and Solutions



(a) Kepler's Third Law can be expressed as P^2 = K r^3, where P is
the orbital period and r is the distance from the center of the
primary object to the orbiting object.  As discussed in class,
for objects orbiting the Sun, the proportionality constant K is 
equal to one when P is in units of years and r is in units of
astronomical units (1 AU = 1.50 * 10^8 km).  This newly discovered
minor planet is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 300,000,000 km.
This is 300,000,000 / 150,000,000 = 2 AU.  So we can say that

    P^2 = 1 * (2^3) = 8 ;  so P = sqrt(8) = 2.83 years.

Convert this length of time to seconds:

    2.83 years = 2.83 * 365.25 * 24 * 3600 = 8.93 * 10^7 sec

And the distance the minor planet travels in one orbit is the
circumference of its orbit, which is 

    2 * 3.14 * 3 * 10^8 = 1.88 * 10^9 km

So the minor planet's orbital velocity is

    1.88 * 10^9 km
    ---------------  =  21.1 km/sec
    8.93 * 10^7 sec

(b) This solution is left as an exercise to the reader.  The answer turns out to 
be about 30 km/s, or about 66,000 miles per hour.