Curated OER
Worksheet 32: Kepler's Law
For this math worksheet, students are given 8 questions regarding Kepler's first law of motion. The questions include definitions, short essay explanations, and formulaic expressions.
PBS
Exoplanets through Kepler’s Laws
The majority of all confirmed exoplanets relied on Kepler's laws to discover their locations. Scholars learn how to apply Kepler's laws and then practice using data to discover exoplanets. They benefit from NASA video footage, NOVA...
PBS
Light Curves of Kepler's First Five Discoveries
The Kepler missions discovered and confirmed more than 2,650 exoplanets to date. A video shares the data from the first five discoveries. It provides graphs and diagrams to put each discovery in perspective to help scholars discuss the...
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Kepler And His Laws
High schoolers engage in an overview of the story of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, and of Kepler's laws. Each of Kepler's laws be studied separately in more detail in later lessons. They examine Kepler's 3rd law.
PBS
Analyzing Light Curves of Transiting Exoplanets
Scientists detected exoplanets by measuring how the brightness of stars changed over time. Young astronomers interpret and analyze the same data that led to exoplanet discoveries. They learn to apply light curve graphs and connect the...
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Universal Gravitation and Kepler's Laws
Students develop problem-solving strategies dealing with Kepler's laws of planetary motion. they examine the law of universal gravitation and continue with problem-solving strategies. Students complete a take-home quiz.
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Kepler and his Laws
Students examine Kepler's Laws. They confirm Kepler's 3rd law by comparing orbital periods and mean distances for all major planets and study conic sections, qualitatively.
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Our View of the Sun
Students are introduced to safety rules for observing the Sun, how the distance of the Sun is measured using Kepler's Laws and identify the visible layers of the Sun. They discuss solar eclipses and view images of eclipses using the...
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Lesson Plan on Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
Students construct a solar system model. In this space science lesson plan, students calculate the eccentricity of a planet's orbit. They calculate the period of a planet's revolution using Kepler's formula.
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Was Kepler Correct?
Students are introduced to Kepler's 2nd law of Planetary Motion. The lesson reinforces the understanding of focal points. They calculate the sector area of an ellipse.Students expand understanding by modeling Kepler's 2nd Law of...
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Ellipses and Kepler's First Law
The class examines graphs in the form r = F(¿¿) in polar coordinates (r, ¿¿), in particular with the circle, ellipse and other conic sections. They determine the nature of an ellipse by studying the role of the semimajor axis and...
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Kepler's 3rd Law
High schoolers derive the velocity in a circular orbit of any radius. They derive the Earth escape velocity and prove Kepler's 3rd law for circular orbits # A simple formula for the orbital period in a circular Earth orbit of given radius.
PBS
Data Plots of Exoplanet Orbital Properties
Scientists discovered the first exoplanet in 1995 and by early 2018, they confirmed the existence of more than 3,700—that's a lot of data! As part of the PBS 9-12 Space series, scholars interpret data about exoplanets. They compare...
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People of the Scientific Revolution
In this Scientific Revolution worksheet, learners read a brief overview of the contributions of Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Harvey.
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Orbital Mechanics
Twelfth graders examine the misconceptions of Newton's laws of motion. In this motion and gravity activity students interpret data and see the effects of gravity.
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Kepler's Third Law
Students use Kepler's third law to derive the velocity in a circular orbit of any radius, and identify the Earth escape velocity.
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Was Kepler Correct?
Students investigate the elliptical orbit around the Sun. They use the information gathered to measure the distance to the Sun from the closest orbital point and the farthest orbital point.
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Kepler's Second Law
Students gain an understanding of Kepler's 2nd law--that planets (and satellites) move fastest at their closest approach to the center of attraction, and slow down when far away. They explore the concepts of "potential energy" and...
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Kepler's Second Law
Students explore orbital velocities and how they vary along each orbit, according to Kepler's Second Law.
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Meet the Neighbors: Planets Around Nearby Stars
Learners explain why a transiting planet causes a periodic dimming in the light from its parent star. They determine the radius of a planet, and its orbital distance, by analyzing data and manipulating equations. Students compare the...
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Ellipses And Kepler's First Law
Students explain that planets actually orbit the center of gravity of the solar system, and that distant planets may be detected by motions of their central star around the centers of gravity of their planetary systems.
Space Awareness
The Engine of Life
There is a specific zone, or distance from a star, that a planet must be in order to have water in a liquid form. The activity demonstrates how flux density depends on its distance from the source. A photovoltaic cell gets power to drive...
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Discovering a Law of Space Physics
Young scholars use data collected by an astronomer to determine the relationship between the time it takes the planet to orbit the sun and the average radius of the planet's orbit around the sun. Students use trial and error to find the...
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Quotes by Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire
In Enlightenment quotations study guide worksheet, students read quotations and identify the speakers as Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Peter the Great, Copernicus, Louis XIV, Galileo, Harvey, Kepler , Frederick the Great, or...