Kepler's second law of planetary motion leads to the fact that when a planet is closest to the sun it moves faster in its orbit than when it is farther away.
O True
O False
True
True
The correct answer is:
O True
Kepler's second law of planetary motion, also known as the law of equal areas, states that a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals as it orbits around the Sun. This means that when a planet is closer to the Sun, the line connecting it to the Sun will sweep out a larger area in a given amount of time compared to when the planet is farther away.
To understand this conceptually, imagine a line connecting the planet to the Sun. As the planet moves closer to the Sun, this line gets shorter and the planet covers less distance in its orbit. However, because the planet is moving faster when it is closer to the Sun, it still manages to sweep out an equal area in a given time. Conversely, when the planet is farther from the Sun, the line connecting it to the Sun gets longer, and even though the planet moves slower, it still sweeps out an equal area in the same amount of time.
Therefore, Kepler's second law implies that a planet moves faster in its orbit when it is closest to the Sun and slower when it is farther away.