Nate Pierski

Astronomy
12/6/16
Newton and Keplers Third Law
Introduction
Ever since the beginning of civilization, people have always looked up into the sky and

wonder about what is exactly up there. The ancient Egyptians studied the heavens for agricultural

purposes while the ancient Chinese believed that events in heaven influenced the events on

Earth. One though must understand that the ancient Greeks were the first to study the heavens

because they wanted to understand how the universe worked. One day, a man by the name of

Claudius Ptolemy came up with a model that helped explain what is up in the heavens called the

Geocentric Model, or the Ptolemaic model. This model tells us that the Earth is the center of the

universe and that the Sun and all the planets revolve around it. This model wasnt questioned by

the people because they believed that everything in the sky was perfect and no one came forward

and proved him wrong. Centuries went by with the idea that the Earth was the center of the

universe until Nicolaus Copernicus came forward and disproved Ptolemys theory. He came up

with the idea of a heliocentric model which tells us that the Earth is not the center, but that the

Sun is. The idea was not well liked because the people believed that it challenged Catholicism.

They believed that God created the universe and wanted to put the humans at the center of his

creation so stating that the Earth and the people are not at the center was damaging to the church.

However, this model today is known to be the model that develops an accurate idea of how our

universe is designed. The idea that the planets revolve around the Sun was set in stone but the

next thing they questioned was the motion of the planets. Using the works of Copernicus,

Johannes Kepler discovered that the planets paths around the Sun is not circular, but is an

ellipse. Kepler had created three laws for planetary motion. The only issue he had was trying to
explain why the planets move. He couldnt discover the reason why the planets and other objects

didnt drop and fall into the Sun. Sir Issac Newton was the one man who was explained the

motion of the objects with the theory of gravity. He came up with we know today as the Law of

Universal Gravitation and using this we will be testing the validity of Newtons generalization of

Keplers third law for planetary motion.

Theory
Newtons law of universal gravitation states that between every two objects there is an

attraction force. From this we can determine the motion of the moons of Jupiter using the

distances from Jupiter and the orbital periods.

Methods
Keplers third law explains to us the motion and orbits of the solar system by using the

ratio of the cube of the orbital semi major axis (a) in AU and the square of the orbital period (p)

in years (a^3/p^2). We can use this formula but only if the orbits are circular but the orbits were

found to be elliptical. However, the difference between the two is so small that we can still use

the formula even if the orbits are elliptical. We can determine if the orbits are circular based upon

whether or the farthest left side is equal distance as the farthest right from the center of Jupiter

and if they have an equal orbiting time. For this observation session, I will be using the CLEA

program that gives us the real motions of Jupiters moons. The first step is to find the diameter of

Jupiter so you can convert pixels to AU because then you will be able to get accurate

measurements for other distances. Next we have to find the orbital distances (a) for every moon.

This will require us to find the orbital distance that is farthest left and the farthest right from the

center of Jupiter. The number on the x-axis is the distance. You must then convert pixels to AU.

The next step is to determine the orbital period (p) and this requires us to record how long it

takes the moon to get from the farthest left side to the farthest right side. In order to determine
 the distances, we must use the Julian Days indicator in the simulation. Once we find the number

in Julian Days, we must multiply it by two and then convert it to years. Lastly, we must use the

information we retrieved to calculate the ratio of orbital radius to orbital period using Keplers

third law formula for all four moons. We then can compare our findings with the standard

deviation and if they are within two standard deviations, our numbers are valid.

Results

a&p
(gathered)
p a & p (accepted)
Moons a (au)
(year) p
Moons a (au)
0.002771 0.0042 0.001182
3 (year)
a
Io 788 4 488 0.00281 0.0048 0.0009
a
3
p2 Io 89 4 55
0.004444 0.0092 0.001018 2
Europa 418 9 112 0.00448 0.0097 p
0.0009
0.007072 0.0188 0.000998 Europa 47 2 54
Ganymede 837 2 656 Ganyme 0.00715 0.0195 0.0009
0.012329 0.0455 0.000904 de 25 9 54
Callisto 676 2 716 0.01258 0.0456 0.0009
Callisto 71 9 55
Statistical Analysis Statistical Analysis of Observed Data
Against Accepted Data from Vali
from Vali MoonSt. Dev. Accepted d
St. Dev.
Moon d
Accepted 0.00022758 0.00102599
Io Yes
0.00022758 Yes 0.00011548 6 3
Io As one can see from the data above, we have
6 Europa 2 6.38313E-05 Yes
Europa 6.38313E-05 YesGanymed
used the methods
4.51227E-05 Yes above to find the orbital distance
Ganymed Yes e
4.51227E-05
e Callisto 5.04843E-05 Yes
(a) and the orbital period (p). We found the x value
Callisto 5.04843E-05 Yes
from when the moon was farthest left and when it was farthest right. The x values were within a

few pixels of each other which tells us the validity of the theory that the orbits are circular. Our

results are valid even if the x values arent exactly the same due an observation error that may

have occurred. We determined the orbital distance by timing how long it took from the moon to

get from the farthest left to farthest right using Julian Days which would be later converted to

years. Once we found both a and p, we then used Keplers Third Law formula and what we

found was that the results we gathered were within two standard deviations of the accepted. As

one can see from the statistical analysis above, the difference between the observed and the

accepted data is within the accepted standard deviation for all four moons. This information is

consistent with the theory and the observations mad over the centuries and proves the validity of

Newtons generalization of Keplers third law planetary motion.

Conclusion
When we compare the accepted data with the observed data, we can see that all four

moons are all within two standard deviations. From looking at the differences between our

observed data and their averages, we can see that they are more than one standard deviation but

less than two standard deviations. Because both of the values from the observed and accepted

values are supposed to be similar, the fact that they are within two standard deviations means that

the values of the observed data are significant and valid. We can accept that the data is not

exactly the same as the accepted data because there was most likely an observational error that

occurred while finding the data. Due to the differences in data, we had to perform a statistical
 analysis which can be seen above in the results. This statistical analysis can help us determine

whether or not the observed is close enough to the accepted data so the observed data can

become valid. In this case, the statistical analysis tells us that the difference between the data is

within two standard deviations. From comparing our observed data with the accepted and data

and doing a statistical analysis, this provides very strong support for the validity of Newtons

generalization of Keplers third law of planetary motion.

Works Cited

Koupelis, Theo. In Quest of the Universe. Sudbury: Jones and Barrtlett, 2011. Print.