Name_______________________
Period____
date______
Lab #23: Orbital Flight Simulator
1. Google Search “ Phet Gravity and Orbits”
2. Select Run now.
Run several simulations, changing parameters as you go. Click show velocity,
force, path and grid. Answer the following questions:
1. What direction is the gravitational force of the orbiting object?
2. What direction is the velocity of the orbiting object?
3. If you turn gravity off, what happens? Why does this happen?
4. In the Earth / sun simulation: increase the mass of the Sun, what happens
to the Earth’s Orbit? Explain why this occurs.
5. In the Earth / sun simulation: increase the mass of the Earth, what happens
to the Earth’s Orbit? Explain why this occurs.
6. Click on the Earth/satellite button and observe an orbit. Pause. Increase
the speed of the satellite by stretching the velocity vector. What happens?
7. Click Pause and Reset. Decrease the speed of the satellite. What happens?
Explain.
8. Click Pause and Reset. Move the satellite further away. Describe what
happens to the orbit.
9. Experiment with radius and speed. Can you create a stable orbit further
from the Earth? What must you do to the speed?
 Orbits closer to earth will be _________(faster/slower)
10. Click Pause and Reset. Change the mass of the satellite only. Will this
change the orbit of the satellite? Why or Why not? Explain what happens.
11.Click pause, reset. Change the mass of the Earth only. Does this effect the
orbit.
 Increasing the mass of Earth will ________
(increase/decrease) the acceleration of the satellite.
12. Click on grid. Experiment with increasing the velocity of a satellite by small
increments. How much larger should the velocity be (based on the size of
the arrow, twice, 1.5x etc…) to escape earth’s gravity field.
13. Experiment with the satellite and produce a stable elliptical orbit.
Compare the speed when the satellite is closer to when it is farther from
the earth. Explain why this happens.