Physics - Period of Mercury's Orbit?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Amanda A
  • Start date Start date
A

Amanda A

Guest
Can someone please answer this question for me?

Suppose you know the mean distance between both Mercury and the sun and Venus and the sun. You also know the period of Venus's orbit around the sun. How can you find the period of Mercury's orbit?

Thanks.
 
Well, since it is the sun, and the sun has, conviently enough, the mass of the sun, I would just use Kepler's Third Law (simple version) and ignore Venus altogether.

P^2 = a^3

Plug in the distance of Mercury from the sun, in AU for the variable "a" in the formula above. Cube that number, then take the square root of that answer, and presto, you have your answer.

I'm guessing since the question included detials about Venus, that they want you to assume you do not know the mass of the sun. So, you would have to find the ratio between the distances of Venus and Mercury (from the sun), and then solve it that way.
 
Back
Top