Orbital Motion Project
KEPLER’S FIRST LAW: each planet's orbit about the Sun is an ellipse
Venus simulates a circular curve around the Sun, but is it really circular? Venus’s orbit may look
circular because the Sun has a continuous force that constantly tries to attract Venus to the center.
However Venus's Orbit is actually elliptical.When two masses acted by another with a centripetal
force, Newton's Law of motion determines the net force and acceleration of Venus, thus if we
know the momentum we can calculate the change of position.
This project simulates the orbital motion of Venus using Kepler’s Laws and Newtonian mechanics. The primary objective was to analyze Venus’s orbit and determine whether it follows a perfect circular path or an elliptical one, using numerical methods and gravitational force calculations.
For my experiment, I centered on Kepler’s First Law- The planets follow elliptical(oval shape)
orbits around the Sun. In our code, we analyzed the perihelion and aphelion which are the
positions closest and furthest from the sun. We calculated the foci distance to prove venus has an
oval orbit
