Question

3. Distinguish Relationships What is the rela-

tionship between a planet's distance from the
sun and the length of its year? Explain.

(PLS HELPPP)

Answer 1

See the Explanation as this is an FRQ.

Step-by-step explanation:

The length of a planet's year is directly related to its distance from the sun. This is because a planet's year is determined by the time it takes for the planet to complete one orbit around the sun. The further away a planet is from the sun, the longer its orbit will be, and the longer its year will be.

This relationship can be explained by Kepler's third law of planetary motion, which states that the square of a planet's orbital period (the length of its year) is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the sun. Mathematically, this is expressed as:

T^2 ∝ r^3

where T is the planet's orbital period (in years) and r is the planet's average distance from the sun (in astronomical units, or AU).

For example, Earth's average distance from the sun is about 1 AU, and its year is 365.25 days long. In contrast, Mars has an average distance from the sun of about 1.5 AU, and its year is 687 Earth days long. Similarly, Jupiter has an average distance from the sun of about 5.2 AU, and its year is almost 12 Earth years long.

Therefore, a planet's distance from the sun has a significant impact on the length of its year. The further a planet is from the sun, the longer its orbit will be, and the longer its year will be.

Answer 2

The relationship between a planet's distance from the sun and the length of its year is an inverse relationship. This means that as the distance from the sun increases, the length of the planet's year decreases. This is because the further away a planet is from the sun, the less gravitational pull it experiences from the sun, and therefore the slower its orbit around the sun will be.