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Re: Mass of Jupiter



They looked at the moons of jupiter and taking the size of the orbits in
astronomical units and their period in earth years they can find the mass of
jupiter in terms of the mass of the sun. We can find the mass of the sun by
doing the same thing with the earth-sun system (as long as we "Know" the
value of G). There is a computer lab exercise on just that at
http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/physics/clea/juplab.html

I use it on my freshman (college) Basic Astronomy class.

David Emigh

Ron Curtin wrote:

A student asked me today, how they come up with the masses of the planets
listed in the front of our text. I couldn't answer him. Can anyone out
there? Thanks.

--------------
Ron Curtin
Physics Instructor
Charlotte Country Day School
Charlotte, NC 28226
(704) 943-4690 Ext. 6159