NANDAX · LEARN WITH SIMULATIONS

Circular Orbit Explorer

Experiment worksheet · NCERT & competitive learning

Name: _______________________Class: __________Date: __________

Learning objective

Determine the speed and period of an ideal circular Earth orbit.

Investigation procedure

Start at 400 km altitude and note speed and orbital period.
Raise the altitude to 20,000 km; observe changes in speed and period.
Explain why the higher satellite travels more slowly but takes longer to complete one orbit.

Observation and reasoning

1. Do higher circular orbits require higher or lower orbital speeds?

2. What provides centripetal acceleration to the satellite?

3. Is the animation orbit visually to scale?

Teacher answer key

1. Lower speeds, since v = √(μ/r) decreases as r increases.

2. Earth’s gravitational attraction.

3. The orbit radius follows the chosen altitude qualitatively, but planet size and presentation scale are adjusted for clarity. The numerical readouts use the physical formulas.