*Note:
For this science project you will need to develop your own experimental procedure. Use the information in the summary tab as a starting place. If you would like to discuss your ideas or need help troubleshooting, use the Ask An Expert forum. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions and offer guidance if you come to them with specific questions.
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Abstract
Why do the planets orbit the sun without flying off into space? Do they move in perfect circles or do their orbits take a different shape? And how could you possibly do a science project about any of this—you can't do an experiment with the planets! However, you can build a model of our solar system that demonstrates the concept of gravity, using balls of different sizes to represent the sun and planets. Watch this video for an excellent introduction to the model:
Think about how you could turn this into a science project. How do the masses of the balls affect their behavior? What about their initial velocity and trajectory relative to the "sun"? If you cannot get your hands on a giant sheet of stretchy fabric, try building a smaller model using a stretchy t-shirt.
Do you have specific questions about your science project? Our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.
Astronomers think big! They want to understand the entire universe—the nature of the Sun, Moon, planets, stars, galaxies, and everything in between. An astronomer's work can be pure science—gathering and analyzing data from instruments and creating theories about the nature of cosmic objects—or the work can be applied to practical problems in space flight and navigation, or satellite communications.
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Physicists have a big goal in mind—to understand the nature of the entire universe and everything in it! To reach that goal, they observe and measure natural events seen on Earth and in the universe, and then develop theories, using mathematics, to explain why those phenomena occur. Physicists take on the challenge of explaining events that happen on the grandest scale imaginable to those that happen at the level of the smallest atomic particles. Their theories are then applied to…
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Mathematicians are part of an ancient tradition of searching for patterns, conjecturing, and figuring out truths based on rigorous deduction. Some mathematicians focus on purely theoretical problems, with no obvious or immediate applications, except to advance our understanding of mathematics, while others focus on applied mathematics, where they try to solve problems in economics, business, science, physics, or engineering.
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General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.
MLA Style
Finio, Ben.
"A Model of Gravity in Our Solar System." Science Buddies,
20 Nov. 2020,
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Astro_p043/astronomy/model-gravity-solar-system.
Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
APA Style
Finio, B.
(2020, November 20).
A Model of Gravity in Our Solar System.
Retrieved from
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Astro_p043/astronomy/model-gravity-solar-system
Last edit date: 2020-11-20
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