Earth and Sun

Earth speed (1.0 = circular)

What keeps the Earth moving in its approximately circular path around the Sun? It's a combination of the 30 km/s speed of the Earth and the gravitational force exerted on the Earth by the Sun.

Using the buttons, this simulation allows you to adjust the speed of the Earth, to see the different orbits that can result. The red arrow shows the Earth's acceleration, and the green arrow shows the Earth's velocity.

Simulation first posted on 7-13-2016. Written by Andrew Duffy

This work by Andrew Duffy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This simulation can be found in the collection at http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/classroom.html.

This work by Andrew Duffy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This simulation can be found in the collection at http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/classroom.html.

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