SP7b.

2 Orbital speeds
1 Table A shows some information about the Planet Orbital radius Orbital period
planets in the Solar System. Calculate the (m) (Earth years)
speed of each planet using the following steps.
Mercury 5.834 × 1010 0.24
a Calculate the distance the planet travels in
11
one orbit. Assume that all the orbits are Venus 1.077 × 10 0.62
circular. Earth 1.496 × 1011 1
b Convert each orbital period (the time to 11
Mars 2.274 × 10 1.88
complete one orbit) into seconds.
Jupiter 7.779 × 1011 11.86
c Use the distances and times you have
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worked out to calculate the orbital speed of Saturn 1.427 × 10 29.46
each planet in metres per second. 12
Uranus 2.869 × 10 84.01
2 a Use the data in table A and your answers
to question 1 to plot a graph with orbital Neptune 4.497 × 1012 164.8
radius on the horizontal axis and orbital A - planet data
speed on the vertical axis. (Hint: write all
the radii as ?? × 1010 first.) Satellite Height (km) Orbital period (s)
b Use your graph to help you to describe A 500 5668
how the speed of a planet depends on its
distance from the Sun. B 10 000 20 846

3 Table B shows some details about the orbits of C 20 000 42 619

some satellites. Calculate the speed of each D 30 000 69 031
satellite using the following steps:
E 40 000 99 376
a Add the height to the radius of the Earth
(6371 km), and convert your answer into B - satellite data
metres.
b Use the radius of the orbit you calculated in part a to calculate the distance the satellite travels in one
orbit. Assume the orbits are all circular.
c Use the distance you have calculated and the orbital period from table B to calculate the speed of the
satellite in metres per second.
4 a Plot a graph to show the height of a satellite above the Earth (on the horizontal axis) and its speed.
b Does this graph show the same relationship between radius and speed as the graph you drew for
question 2? Explain your answer.
5 a Plot a graph to show the height of a satellite and its orbital period (using the information in table B).
b Use your graph to estimate the height of a satellite with an orbital period of 86 400 seconds.
c A satellite orbiting above the equator at this height is called a ‘geostationary’ satellite. Explain what this
means. (Hint: convert the period in part b into hours.)
6 A satellite orbiting above Mars with the same orbital radius as satellite A would have an orbital period of
17 328 seconds.
a Is this satellite moving faster or slower than satellite A? Explain your answer.
b What does this tell you about the effect of the mass of a planet on the orbital speed of its satellites?

circumference of circle = 2 × π × r speed = distance There are 31 557 600 seconds

time
in 1 Earth year.

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