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Measuring the Eccentricity of the Terrestrial Orbit: An Experiment in the Classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2018

R. Szostak
R. Szostak*
Affiliation:
Universität Münster, Institut für Didaktik der Physik, Germany

Extract

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Most textbooks of physics present the terrestrial orbit by a drawing which shows an ellipse of substantial eccentricity. This suggests a remarkable variation of the distance between Sun and Earth during the year up to a value of about 3:1 and more. Imagine the dramatic variation in size of the radiating area of the Sun seen by the terrestrial inhabitants with all the terrible consequences for temperature. All this is not true. There is no obvious change in size of the solar disc.

Type
Section Six
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 162: New Trends in Astronomy Teaching , 1998 , pp. 296 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © 1996