Remember we are working in the 8th grade Study Island section. 

This week take a look at page 3 of this Lesson in Study Island or use the link below.  Click on the simulation for Gravity and Orbits.  Explore the different scenarios to learn how  size, velocity, and distance effect Gravity and the orbits of celestial bodies.

Link
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/gravity-and-orbits/gravity-and-orbits_en.jnlp

Assignment...
  1. On the simulation for the earth and the sun, what happens when you increase the size of the sun?  What happens when you decrease the size of the sun?
  2. What happens when you increase the size of the earth and the sun stays the same size?
  3. On the simulation for the earth and the moon, what happens when you decrease the size of the earth?  What happens when you increase the size of the earth?  What happens when you increase the size of the moon or decrease the size of the moon?
  4. Give a quick summary of what these simulations show.
Ricky D
2/6/2012 12:02:02 am

If you increase the size of the sun, the gravity gets stronger,then if it's smaller,the gravity gets weaker.If the Earth gets bigger,it would crash into the sun.The gravity would get weaker if the Earth was smaller,if the moon became smaller,the gravity would let it go.If it got bigger,it would crash into Earth.

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Sierra J
2/6/2012 12:03:35 am

When you increase the size of the Sun the Earth gets closer and closer to the sun. When you decrease the size of the Sun the Earth goes farther away from the Sun. When you increase the Earth's size and keep the regular size of the Sun nothing happens, everything stays the same. When you decrease the size of the Earth the moon pulls away from it. When you increase or decrease the moon size it moves the Sun. This means that gravity is effected by size and position.

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Jordan P.
2/6/2012 12:03:54 am

When the sun is bigger than the earth the earth crashes into the sun.
When the earth is bigger the earth goes faster.
When the sun is smaller than the earth the earth drifts off.
When the sun and earth is big the earth still crashes into the sun.
The earth is effected by gravity.

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Reno s.
2/6/2012 12:04:13 am

When i increase the size of the sun it has more of a gravitational pull , When i decrease the sun, it also decreases its orbit.

When i increase the earth it tends to get slower and makes the moon lose its path and the force of the gravitational pull from earth makes the moon collide with earth .

When the earth decreases, its makes the moon loose its path and loose orbit with earth .

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dakota isgreat smallwood
2/6/2012 12:04:35 am

when you increase the size of the sun it gives it more gravitational pull and pulls the earth closer as you increase the size. when you decrease the size of the sun the earth will start to loose its gravitational path.

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Logan W
2/6/2012 12:28:32 am

When the sun get`s bigger it it pulls us in to it.when the sun gets smaller it we stayed the same. When i increased the earth westayed the same. when i decresed the earth the moon flotes away.It show what would happen if the soalr system would change.

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Jessie Heisser
2/6/2012 12:28:42 am

Dependent on where you place the sun and the earth you can in fact make it very possible for them to be closer much closer at that tho the earth never blew up in the simulator it may not mean the same for in real life so if the sun and the earth where to get that close we most likely would catch fire or blow up from impact

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tesha
3/1/2012 04:34:22 am

you sound all professional talking about the sun and moon like that =)))

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2/6/2012 12:29:57 am

I think that the sun is the main control of our solar system and if the sun gets any bigger or any smaller we will die because if the sun gets any bigger we get sucked in and if it gets any smaller then we drift away.

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Jordan J
2/6/2012 12:31:08 am

when the sun is enlarged it pulls the earth torwards it. when the sun is shrunk, the earth tends to fall back into space. it kinda stays the same path. the earth grows in size and tends to pull the moon torwards it, the moon floats away. the moon enlarges and the path shrinks , the speed increases.

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Deair wade
2/6/2012 12:31:32 am

1.When you increase the sun the earth gets sucked in,and when you decrease the sun the earth moves farther out...

2.It still revolves the same way...

3.It still revolves the same way.The moon floats away.The moon gets sucked in.The moon floats away...

4.The lessons show that what would happen if the moon,sun,or the earth was smaller/larger then the regular size...

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Niya m.
2/6/2012 12:31:38 am

When I increased the sun the earth came crashing down into it, and when I deceased the sun it lost its gravity and the earth flew away.

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tesha s.
2/7/2012 03:24:54 am

When you increase the size of the sun the earth will eventually run into it. When you decrease the size of the sun the moon will lose it's gravitational pull towards the sun and go out of orbit. When you increase the size of the earth and keep the sun the same size the earth will eventually leave orbit. When you decrease the size of the earth the moon will also slowly start to leave orbit also. If you increase the size of the earth the moon will sadly explode into the earth. If you decrease the size of the moon nothing significant really happens.

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Dale MW3
2/7/2012 11:00:28 pm

when i increased the size of the sun it pulled the earth closer and killed the earth but when i made it smaller the orbit of the earth around the sun got wider but when i increased the size of the earth and kept the size of the sun the same nothing significantly changed.On the sim with the earth and the moon i made the earth bigger it mad e the orbit of the moon smaller and sped up its orbit speed.but when i made it smaller the moons orbit the moon flew out of the earths gravitational pull when i increased the size of the moon it made its orbit a little bit wider but the most odd thing is the smaller the moon got the bigger it orbit around the earth got some of the results i got back form sim had some very interesting results

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