Kepler's Third Law - The Equation
Initial Publication Date: September 5, 2006
Summary
In this module, students try various ways of plotting sidereal period vs. orbital radius and discover the simple power-law relationship of Kepler's third law. Students recreate spreadsheets shown in the Powerpoint module on their own with formulas that answer various pieces of the overall question.
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Learning Goals
- Determine the best-fit relationship between orbital period and orbital distance for the planets from graphs of the data.
- Become familiar with various XY-plots
Context for Use
This module was designed to be used in an undergraduate mathematical geology class where students are asked to look at geological questions mathematically and may spend more time on the math than on the geology.
Description and Teaching Materials
This module is one of several developed by Dr. Vacher. The module presentation could be found at http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/modules/moduleList.asp
The Powerpoint file is considered to be the student version. There is also an instructor's version that has active spreadsheets in it. There are instructions for requesting this version on the website.
Teaching Notes and Tips
These modules were developed as essentially self-paced, take-home lab assignments. Students are supposed to work through the modules, slide by slide, building their own worksheets as they go along, taking note of instructions and prompts, hints, and queries.
Students must have access to computers equipped with a spreadsheet program such as Excel.
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Assessment
The easiest way to test student work on this module is to ask students to hand in a copy of their worksheets starting with a different set of input data. The module also ends with homework assignment questions.