Kepler’s Laws
First Law Screen
Explore and analyze the geometric properties of the planet’s orbit by changing its position and velocity.
ANALYZE the CHOOSE a real
different planet’s orbit to
eccentricities imitate
OBSERVE
DRAG the
geometrical
planet or velocity
properties of
vector to change
ellipses
the orbit
PAUSE and go
STEP BY STEP MEASURE time
for a better
and distances
analysis
Second Law Screen
Observe how the movement of the body around the orbit results in sweeping multiple equal areas over
the same intervals of time, even if the areas are different in shape.
OBSERVE the
CHANGE the
planet’s behavior
number of on the furthest and
divisions closest distances
RECOGNIZE
the total area of
each region and
the time it takes
PLAY the
to ll them simulation to see
how the areas are
drawn
COMPARE the
time and total area
of each section
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Third Law Screen
Relate the size of the orbit and the time it takes to complete a full revolution. More speci cally, explore
how by changing the powers of the semi-major axis of the orbit and its period you can reach a linear
relationship.
EXPLORE the BUILD the target
numeric relation of orbit and
period (T) and ANALYZE it with
semi-major axis (a) the T vs a graph.
DISCOVER the
different graph
shapes by
changing the orbit
and powers of a
and T
MEASURE the
ALTER the orbit period of the orbit
by changing the
star’s mass
All Laws Screen
Combine what you have learned and analyze a single orbit through each of Kepler’s Laws.
PRESERVES the
same orbit in
GET more orbital each law
data by selecting
this option in the
preferences
panel MEASURE time
and distances
even changing to
another law
CHANGE the
scene between the
different laws
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Insights into Student Use
• For a quantitative analysis of the changes in velocity and position throughout
the orbits, students may want to slow down or stop the bodies’ movement
in a speci c position. To improve accuracy, use “Slow” (1) and pause and
step forward (2) to incrementally analyze. (Note that the step size is smallest
when “Slow” is selected.)
• At rst, the way the orbit changes will seem unintuitive and arbitrary. Try to
get the students to identify how changes in position and velocity (magnitude and direction) alone will
affect the shape. Invite students to match the “Target orbit”, where they will need to modify all variables
that affect an orbit size and shape.
• Students want to build “perfect orbits” (elliptical orbits with a centered axis), and it is hard for them to
discover that they need to play with the velocity direction.
• Encourage students to nd many of the different possible shapes: small orbits, big ones, highly
elliptical, circular, or even forbidden orbits (escape and crash).
Complex Controls
• Each time that the planet's position or velocity is modi ed, a new state is saved.
This state can be restored with the Restart Button.
• When the planet is in a position or velocity that generates a crashing or escape
trajectory, the play buttons are deactivated to prevent the reproduction of the planet's movement.
• Once the user reaches an escape trajectory by dragging the planet, is not possible to continue moving
it farther away from the sun. It is necessary rst to change the velocity to return to an elliptical orbit and
after that, is possible to continue moving the planer farther from the sun.
Model Simpli cations
Size of Bodies
The size of the bodies are greatly exaggerated, as using the same scale for distances and sizes would
render all bodies as invisible points. For example, the real solar radius is about 0.004 AU, but in the sim it
is displayed as 0.15 AU. Additionally, typical gravitational systems usually have enormous distances
between bodies, even when measured in AUs, but most of the sim pre-sets show them in the same
range of ~5AU in size.
Areas
The elliptical areas are calculated and displayed as AU2 to demonstrate the equality of those areas. In
real-life examples of Kepler's Laws, the areas are rarely calculated, and when they are, AU2 is not really
the best unit to use.
Parabolic Trajectories
When bodies reach escape speed in real life, their orbit becomes an escape parabola (or hyperbola if the
velocity is higher). However, in the sim, the velocity will stop exactly before escape speed, thus displaying
a highly elliptical trajectory, almost a parabola. This is done to avoid the orbit calculations from breaking
down and having to smoothly change shapes from ellipse to parabola.
More information about the Model of the simulation can be found here.
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Customization Options
Query parameters allow for customization of the simulation, and can be added by appending a '?' to the
sim URL, and separating each query parameter with a ‘&’. The general URL pattern is:
…html?queryParameter1&queryParameter2&queryParameter3
For example, if you only want to show the 2nd screen (screens=2), and disable pan and zoom
(supportsPanAndZoom=false) use:
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/keplers-laws/latest/keplers-laws_all.html?screens=2&supportsPanAndZoom=false
To run this in Spanish (locale=es), the URL would become:
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/keplers-laws/latest/keplers-laws_all.html?locale=es&screens=2&supportsPanAndZoom=false
Indicates this customization can be accessed from the Preferences menu within the simulation.
Query Parameter and Description Example Links
screens - speci es which screens are included in screens=1
the sim and their order. Each screen should be
separated by a comma. For more information, visit screens=2,1
the Help Center.
initialScreen - opens the sim directly to the initialScreen=1
speci ed screen, bypassing the home screen. initialScreen=2
moreOrbitalDate -display a panel with more moreOrbitalData=true
information about the planet’s positioning and
velocity vectors.
locale - specify the language of the simulation locale=es (Spanish)
using ISO 639-1 codes. Available locales can be locale=fr (French)
found on the simulation page on the Translations
tab. Note: this only works if the simulation URL
ends in “_all.html”.
colorProfile - changes simulation colors for colorProfile=projector
easier projection.
audio - if muted, audio is muted by default. If audio=muted
disabled, all audio is permanently turned off. audio=disabled
allowLinks - when false, disables links that allowLinks=false
take students to an external URL. Default is true.
supportsPanAndZoom - when false, disables supportsPanAndZoom=false
panning and zooming using pinch-to-zoom or
browser zoom controls. Default is true.
Suggestions for Use
Sample Challenge Prompts
• Identify all the variables that affect the shape and size of an orbit.
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• With the Target Orbit selector, try to mimic real-life orbits. What combination of position and velocity
achieves those trajectories?
• Try to reach the highest eccentricity possible without reaching an escape orbit (dashed line). What
does eccentricity mean?
• Measure the speed at which the body would escape. Is it the same for every position?
• In the Third Law Screen, what combination of powers will make the graph a straight line? You have to
create multiple orbits rst to see the line.
• In the Third Law Screen, build three different orbits with a=2 AU. What is the period of each orbit?
What do you observe?
Inclusive Features
Sound and Soni cation
• The acceleration of the orbiting planet is mapped to its volume.
• When changing the shape of the orbit, there is a sound related to the size of the semi-major axis, and
a vibrato tone related to the eccentricity.
• In the Second Law Screen, to better indicate that the areas are covered in equal time intervals, a
metronome sound plays when a new area is reached.
See the simulation page for all supported inclusive features.
See all published activities for Kepler’s Law here.
For more tips on using PhET sims with your students, see Tips for Using PhET.
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