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Royal Observatory Greenwich
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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.
Drawing Orbits
This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, allows students to visualise the orbits of planets as ellipses, rather than circles, and allows for the further study of the geometry of these orbits through basic algebra, using terms derived from the drawing exercise.
Depending on student ability, you may choose to assign the full activity or the ‘Drawing Orbits’ segment on its own. The student instructions should be printed off for every student.
The last activity, where string is pinned to a board to enable an ellipse to be drawn, is a simple and effective method for creating an ellipse. The distance between the pins can be varied to change the shape (eccentricity) of the ellipse.
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Drawing orbits 860.67 KB
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Drawing orbits 860.67 KB
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