Planetary Motion
Assignment 1
How do the planets stay in orbit? Answer the questions following the reading - Review (3 questions) and explore (3 questions).
Assignment 2
Click on any of the highlighted blue vocabulary/concepts from the reading section in Assignment 1 and do one of the following:
Do an interactive lab
Watch a video, completing notes
Complete a practice
Once completed, turn into the instructor either a physical copy of notes, etc. or share a google doc.
Assignment 3
Practice -- Complete the following lab: Ellipse
Practice --Complete the Activity - Retrograde Motion
Moon, Phases and Gravity
So what causes the moon’s phases? Let’s begin with the basics. The Moon is a natural satellite of planet Earth, taking about a month to revolve all the way around our planet. Its orbit is very nearly circular; it stays about 380,000 kilometers away from us as it moves counterclockwise (as viewed from a northern hemisphere perspective). It also stays fairly close to the Earth's equatorial plane (an imaginary extension of Earth's equator out into space).
As you may expect, the Moon doesn’t just revolve, it also rotates about its own axis – but in quite an interesting fashion. Over the millennia, the Moon has become "locked" into a special kind of motion around the Earth. It rotates on its axis at the same pace as it revolves around the Earth. As a result, the Moon keeps the same face toward us throughout its orbit. (Watching a video is perhaps the best illustration of this). So, you may often hear astronomers talk of the “nearside” and “farside” of the moon. While Earthlings can only view the nearside, astronauts and spacecraft have successfully taken images of the farside. Note that there is not actually a “dark side” of the Moon – with this demonstration, you’ll see how the sun’s rays will strike the entire surface!
The observed phase of the Moon is determined by its position relative to Earth and the Sun. In the 29.5-day period that the Moon takes to orbit the Earth, it will appear as different shapes because of our planet’s viewpoint. In actuality, half of the Moon’s surface is being hit by sunlight. But, because of our relative positions, we’ll see the Moon swell from the new Moon, through the crescent, to the first quarter, to the swollen gibbous moon, and then the full Moon, before waning to the new Moon again.
Assignment 4
Watch the following video and take notes on the different phases. : Moon Phases
Assignment 5
Complete: Calculate the time of the tides: