In astronomy, Kepler's laws of planetary motion are three scientific laws describing orbital motion, each giving a description of the motion of planets around the Sun.
Kepler's laws are:
- The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.
- A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
- The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.
Read more about Kepler's Laws Of Planetary Motion: History, First Law, Second Law, Third Law, Generality, Zero Eccentricity, Relation To Newton's Laws, Computing Position As A Function of Time, Computing The Planetary Acceleration, Newton's Law of Gravitation
Famous quotes containing the words laws, planetary and/or motion:
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserves a republic in vigour. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.”
—Salvador Dali (1904–1989)
“The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)