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Lesson Planet
Why does it take Pluto 90,000 days to orbit the sun, but it only takes Mercury 88 days? An interactive lesson helps pupils find a connection between the speed of orbit and distance a planet is from the sun. The simulation allows for changes in the mass of the sun and the orbital radius.
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Concepts
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Instructional Ideas
- Create an interdisciplinary lesson with mathematics by creating equations to model the changes in velocity
- Turn your classroom into a solar system and use students moving at different rates to represent the orbiting planets
Classroom Considerations
- Requires laptops with Internet access
- This content requires Adobe Flash to view
Pros
- Includes background information to help introduce the interactive
- Shows the calculation the program uses when finding the orbital velocity
Cons
- None