Question

How do I calculate the orbital period of Mercury?

Answer 1

Answer:88 days

Explanation: The sidereal.orbital period is calculated from observations. Mercury is observed to come into

superior conjunction with the Sun every 116 days. This is called the "Mercury's synodic year". The sum of the inverse of earth's sidereal year and merciry's synod year equals the inverse of mercury's sidereal year. That is:

1/365.24 + 1/116 = 1/P where P is mercurry's sidereal year.

Therefore, P equals 88 days.

Answer 2

Just like any other speed, it's

(total distance) / (time to cover the distance).

So you need to look up Mercury's distance from the sun, calculate the length of it's orbit, and divide that by the time it takes to go around the orbit once.
Good luck.