- #1
Saladsamurai
- 3,020
- 7
Am I making this out to be too simple?
I am given: The Sun's center is at one focus of Earth's orbit, how far from this focus is the other focus in meters and in terms of the solar radius?
eccentricity=.0167
semimajor axis=a=1.5*10^11 meters.
solar radius=R=6.96 *10^8 meters
Now if c is the distance from the focus to the center of the ellipse,
e=c/a implies c=ea.
So the foci should just be 2ea meters apart...for which I am getting 5.01^9 meters. Which seems reasonable (I think:uhh:)
Now I am having trouble with the latter part of the problem. I know it is just some sort of ratio. The text says 7.2 solar radii but does not give the answer in meters, so I cannot confirm that either.
Casey
I am given: The Sun's center is at one focus of Earth's orbit, how far from this focus is the other focus in meters and in terms of the solar radius?
eccentricity=.0167
semimajor axis=a=1.5*10^11 meters.
solar radius=R=6.96 *10^8 meters
Now if c is the distance from the focus to the center of the ellipse,
e=c/a implies c=ea.
So the foci should just be 2ea meters apart...for which I am getting 5.01^9 meters. Which seems reasonable (I think:uhh:)
Now I am having trouble with the latter part of the problem. I know it is just some sort of ratio. The text says 7.2 solar radii but does not give the answer in meters, so I cannot confirm that either.
Casey