Solar System -- Periodic Motion
- Author:
- Mr. Ellis
Directions:
The Geogebra applet will simulate the heliocentric orbit of the Earth around the Sun and collect data of the position of the Earth relative to the Sun. You'll use the green and red buttons to start and stop orbit.
Press "Orbit!" and collect data. Press "Stop Orbit!" once Earth has made one full revolution around the Sun (365.25 days! How about that). VERY IMPORTANT: Once you press "Orbit!", the app will continue to collect data until you press "Stop Orbit!". If you do not press Stop Orbit, it will crash your computer after about a minute.
Once you have your data, select column A and column B by clicking and holding on the "A" and "B" in the table. Then, press "ctrl + C" to copy your data. Finally, go to your open Excel or Google Sheets file and paste the data into the first two cells (A1 and B1).