Satellite Motion Lab

Problem: This lab had two purposes: 1) to determine whether or not there is a relationship between the radius and period of a satellite’s orbit and if so, what that relationship is, and 2) to determine whether or not there is a relationship between the centripetal force and period of a satellite’s orbit and if so, what that relationship is.

Hypothesis: Prior to the execution of this experiment I did some brainstorming on what I already know about satellites. I knew that gravity keeps a satellite in motion and I knew that something becomes a satellite by being launched out into space at a high enough acceleration. I did not know the difference between a circular satellite and an elliptical satellite or the difference between centripetal and centrifugal force and finally, I did not know what role these forces play in satellite motion. My hypothesis for the outcome of this lab was that there is a relationship between the two sets of variables and constants but I did not really have an idea on what that relationship is.

Procedure: For this lab we did two separate experiments. For the first we kept the centripetal force constant and we changed the radius of the orbit five different times. For each new radius we tested the period three separate times and found an average of those three trials. For the second portion of the experiment we kept the radius of the orbit constant and changed the centripetal force five different times. For each new centripetal force we tested the period three separate times and found the average of those three trials.

Data:

	Period (s)
Radius (m)	1	2	3	Average
0.20	0.28	0.26	0.31	0.28
0.30	0.36	0.32	0.32	0.33
0.40	0.43	0.43	0.43	0.43
0.50	0.46	0.46	0.46	0.46
0.60	0.49	0.48	0.51	0.49