March 16, 2011 - The Start of Astronomy

Today, we are beginning how forces relate astronomy. So first, imagine that a bowling ball is moving. How is it moving? Where is it going? What would happen if you hit it into another direction?
Well, you could describe the motion as going straight or forward. Where is it going, could be described as the same. To hit it to make it go into another direction would be to kick it on the side. One group said if you hit it directly on the top, it would not change direction.

So, hypothesis:
a) Hitting it halfway will make the direction move.
b) Hitting it anywhere can make the direction move.
c) Almost anywhere can make it change.

Now we test out Hypothesis C because most groups thought it was correct. We took TJ to test this. TJ took the long brush [ like a mallet ] to hit the bowling ball with. Look at this diagram:



The force of TJ hits the ball while it is moving. The motion then changes it direction. A new idea was made. Groups then thought that, if TJ kept hitting the bowling ball, the shape would be in a circle.



We then watched a video that shows a man hitting a bowling ball with a mallet in this kind of manner. Our hypothesis was therefore, correct.
Now we take this idea to a whole new level. How is this the same at the Earth rotating around the Sun? Look at this picture below now, too, for a better understanding-



This is a simple picture showing the Earth's rotation around the Sun. How is this similar to the bowling ball being hit by TJ? And how does the Sun make this happen?
The bowling ball is similar to this because of it's circular motion it's making. Pretend the bowling ball in the video was going around a larger ball. Imagine the bowling ball as the Earth, and the larger ball in the middle the Sun.
But how does the Sun do this? We believe it's a force the Sun is making onto the Earth...which we will investigate.

CP