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THE ASTRONOMICAL UNIT & THE SPEED OF LIGHT Worksheet Lab

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Lab 4: THE ASTRONOMICAL UNIT & THE SPEED OF LIGHT Worksheet Name: Nathan Huddleston CWID: 355009 OBJECTIVES In this exercise you are introduced to large distance measurements using the parallax ... method. You can then use the Roemer method to calculate the speed of light, and use this knowledge to obtain distance measurements using data from radar signals. EQUIPMENT A scientific calculator INTRODUCTION THE ASTRONOMICAL UNIT - PARALLAX METHOD When Johannes Kepler discovered the three laws of planetary motion early in the 17th Century he established a relative scale for the solar system relative to quantities measured from the Earth. In particular his third law states the square of period of rotation (known as the sidereal period) of a planet about the Sun, measured in years, equals the cube of the semi-major axis of the planet's orbit, measured in astronomical units (A.U.), or P2 = a3. Remember, the semi-major axis of an elliptical orbit is just the average distance of the planet to the Sun, and an A.U. is the average distance of the Earth to the Sun. The sidereal periods of the planets visible to the unaided eye (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) have been known to astronomers since before the birth of Christ. With the sidereal periods and Kepler's third law, the relative scale of the solar system was established (i.e. a = P2/3) - at least the portion known to Kepler in the 17th Century: [Show More]

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