Stimulating Understanding of Computational science through Collaboration, Exploration, Experiment, and Discovery for students with Hearing Impairments
a collaboration of the Shodor Education Foundation, Inc., Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf, Barton College, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and Interpreters, Inc.

For Teachers!

Orbital Speed

This page has additional background material and links to resources that may help you prepare for and extend the lesson.

General information on the moon and its orbit: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Month

US Naval Observatory with with moon charts 1700-2015:  http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.html

If you look on the internet you can find perigee, apogee and orbital period for several comets and asteroids.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/index.html 

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/cometfact.html 

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K02/K02R06.html

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/lists/Atens.html

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/index.html

On these tables q is perihelion or perigee (AU), Q is aphelion or apogee (AU), P is the period in years, e is the eccentricity, a is the semi major axis( half the major axis.) 

Sample Excel spreadsheets referred to in this lesson:

Orbital speed calculator

Full moon calculator

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This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Science Foundation.