Saturday, March 21, 2026

Checking Kepler's Third Law

(You'll need to view this in landscape mode if using a small screen).

For Earth and the inner planets:

Planet

Orbit radius (r) in AUs

r^3

Period (t) in years

t^2

r^3/t^2

Mercury

sin 22.5° *

~0.06

7/29

0.06

0.96

Venus

sin 46°

~0.37

8/13

0.38

0.98

Earth

1

1

1

1

1


(*approximate average greatest elongation from data here)

So far, so good, but to extend this to the outer planets, I'll need a method of determining the orbital radii for those. ðŸ¤”

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