Question

Given the equation P2 = A3, what is the orbital period, in years, for the planet Jupiter? (Jupiter is located 5.2 AU from the sun.)

5 years

11 years

110 years

500 years

Answer 1

are those exponents, like P^2 = A^3 maybe?

Answer 2

what does A stand for?

Answer 3

and I assume P is the orbital period, but what is A? @Gabylovesyou

Answer 4

I assume we plug in the 5.2 for the A and solve for P
but that's just a guess, since I"m not exactly sure what A stands for here.

Answer 5

i think it is the area swept out over the plane of the ecliptic

Answer 6

ah, that makes sense

Answer 7

http://www.windows2universe.org/the_universe/uts/kepler3.html
good ol' kepler

Answer 8

are we assuming a circular orbit? probably so, since they only give one distance.

Answer 9

Kepler's 3rd law,

I think A is AU,

p^2 = 5.2^3

p^2 = 140.608

p = 11.857, I'm not sure if I should round this off.

Answer 10

so, yeah, a = semimajor axis
and that's the same as what they give us, the 5.2
so, basically, you just need to cube 5.2
and then take the square root of that answer...

Answer 11

, you are using A as radius then

Answer 12

if I type that in to a calculator, I get something close to one of the choices, but not exactly...
I guess we can pick the closest one...