Gravity+and+space




 * 1** Look at the table.

**a** Write down the planets in order of mass. **b** Write down the planets in order of gravity. **c** What pattern do you see? **2** The planets are grouped together as rocky planets (nearest the Sun) and the gas giants (furthest away from the Sun). **a** Which planets have very small diameters? **b** Which planets have very big masses? **c** Use your answer to explain why these two groups have been chosen for the planets.

Gravity is the reason the planets orbit the Sun. The gravity between two objects depends on: · their separation · their size. **3 a** Which planet is closest to the Sun? **b** Do you think this planet will feel the Sun’s gravity strongly or weakly? Give a reason.

**4** The above table gives the size of gravity on different planets. Find the weight of the following objects using: weight = mass x gravity. All answers need a unit.

WARNING THE GRAVITATIONAL FIELD STRENGTH ON EARTH IS 10 N/Kg the gravity given in the table is expressed as a proportion of earths gravity i.e earths gravity is 10, so Mars’ gravity is 0.38 x10 = 3.8 If using the units N and Kg.

**a** A 1 kg bag of sugar on Mars **b** A 1 kg bag of sugar on Jupiter **c** A 50 kg person on Saturn **d** A 50 kg person on Earth **e** A 0.5 kg book on Neptune **f** A 0.5 kg book on Mercury

**5** Describe how heavy you would feel on Mercury and on Jupiter.

__**Research the moon**__ - the presentation should be very concise and to the point, you will simply tell the class the key points of what you found out and at least one interesting fact!


=__HOMEWORK - Read the following and complete the questions below!__=

__**Kepler and the heliocentric view of the solar system**__


__**CELESTIA**__ Below is the link to Celestia, its a lot of fun but takes some getting used to, downloading it can take some time so do it overnight perhaps and then have a play - It takes up about 70megs. It is a lot of fun, you can find where and when eclipses will occur and have a look at different solar sytems, it even has spacecraft like the International space station (ISS) and shows their orbits! []

__**Satellites**__


__**Mission to the moon**__ []