23. Why does a planet with a larger orbit take longer to go around the Sun?
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1 point
Because it is farther from the Sun
Because it is closer to other planets
Because it is smaller in size
Because it has a stronger gravitational pull
Because it is farther from the Sun
A planet with a larger orbit takes longer to go around the Sun primarily because it is farther from the Sun. The time it takes for a planet to complete one orbit around the Sun is determined by its distance from the Sun. The farther away a planet is, the longer it takes to complete its orbit. This relationship is explained by Kepler's law of planetary motion, which states that the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun. Therefore, the larger the orbit, the longer the planet's orbital period.
A planet with a larger orbit takes longer to go around the Sun because it is farther from the Sun. To understand why this happens, we need to consider the gravitational force between the planet and the Sun.
According to Newton's law of universal gravitation, the force of gravity between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In the case of a planet orbiting the Sun, the Sun's mass is much larger than the planet's mass, so we can consider only the planet's motion.
When a planet is closer to the Sun, the gravitational force between them is stronger. This stronger gravitational force causes the planet to move faster in its orbit. As the planet moves away from the Sun towards a larger orbit, the gravitational force decreases because the distance increases. As a result, the planet's speed decreases, and it takes longer for the planet to complete one full orbit around the Sun.
To mathematically calculate the relation between the orbit size and the time taken to go around the Sun, we can use Kepler's third law of planetary motion. According to Kepler's law, the square of the period of revolution (time taken to complete one orbit) is directly proportional to the cube of the average distance between the planet and the Sun. This means that as the distance from the Sun increases, the time taken to complete one orbit (the period) increases exponentially. Thus, a planet with a larger orbit will naturally take longer to go around the Sun.
In summary, a planet with a larger orbit takes longer to go around the Sun because it is farther from the Sun. This is due to the decrease in gravitational force as the distance from the Sun increases, causing the planet to move slower and take more time to complete its orbit.