GRAVITY SIMULATOR:

Our Solar System

THEORY

What do you know of our solar system? What is a solar system? A galaxy? The universe?

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

This lesson provides a look at our Solar System. The next slide provides a review of the last lesson’s concepts on matter, and the following slides provide new information on the universe for the students.

- theory: This lesson is all about our solar system and how to simulate it in the game.- tasks: Students utilize a code to simulate our solar system in Gravity Simulator.- discuss & tasks: These slides focus on tasks that concern our solar system.

THEORY: REVIEW: MATTER

● What are the four states of matter?

● How are these states different?

● What two things determine what state a matter is in?

It’s a good idea to have the students work as pairs and have a few moments to think about these questions before you ask for the answers. Below are the answers, but for clarity and review, the next slide also includes the answers for the students.

Expected answers: What are the four states of matter? Plasma, gas, liquid, solid.How are these states different? Particles behave differently in different states of the same matter: how tightly they are packed changes depending on the state. Typically, the solid state has extremely tight particles, whereas they are very loose and mobile in a gas. There are exceptions, most notably water, which has a looser

structure as solid ice than its liquid form. These states also behave radically differently: solids retain the same shape, liquids conform to the shape of their container, and gas actually expands to fill containers.What two things determine what state a matter is in? Pressure and temperature.

THEORY

Have you heard of these concepts?

The Solar System is our Sun and the objects that orbit it, including Earth.

A Star System or Stellar System is a small number of stars that orbit each other.

A Planetary System is a set of gravitationally bound non-stellar objects in orbit around a star or star system.

A Galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter.

The Universe is all of time and space and its content, which includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space and all matter and energy.

GROUPS IN SPACE

The next slide provides extensive resources to help you teach the students these concepts.

THEORY

Image Source: Earth’s Location in the Universe, Wikimedia Commons

Below are extensive sources you can use to teach these crucial astrophysical concepts to the students.

Tell the students: This picture provides a good look at how vast the universe exactly is. Beginning from top left and going from left to right, top to bottom, the view zooms back, depicting the universe at a vast scale.

READ: Space.com: Our Expanding UniverseREAD: National Geographic: The Origins of the UniverseREAD: Stephen Hawking: The Origin of the UniverseREAD: Scientific American: This is What We Don’t Know About the UniverseREAD: NASA: How Big Is Our Universe?READ: NASA: Solar System Exploration

READ: Space.com: Solar System FactsREAD: National Geographic: Our Solar SystemREAD: Universe Today: What Are Multiple Star Systems?READ: Time.com: Scientists Discover a Rare Planet That Has 3 StarsREAD: NASA Space Place: What is a galaxy?READ: Space.com: How Many Galaxies Are There?READ: Space.com: Latest News About Stars and Galaxies

Image Source: Earth’s Location in the Universe, Wikimedia Commons

PLAY: LESSON GOAL

Complete tasks in Gravity Simulator!

On the following slide will be a task to engage your students while they are playing Gravity Simulator. Some students will likely complete this task sooner than others: in this case, they can practice free play and experiment in the simulator.

For the rest of the lesson, it’s a good idea to play the game until the last 10 minutes - these final minutes are best reserved for discussion and tasks (provided at the end of this lesson).

PLAY: CODE

Copy the code to the game from here:

https://goo.gl/PRmCKg

For today’s tasks, students need to input this code into Gravity Simulator to begin. You can either copy this code and send it to your students (with email or other kind of instant message) or you can print out this copy. Remind your students that all the values must be exact for the code to work.

The Code:/Gravity fun at TestTubeGames _settings(gravity: r^-2, x: -216.9865, y: 6.899657, zoom: 4.717124, name: Solar System); _type0(m: 1000, col: 2, lcol: 3, d: 0.05828428, noGrav); _type1(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3); _type2(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3); _type3(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3);

_type4(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3); _type5(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3, rObj: 20); _type6(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3, rObj: 20); _type7(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3, rObj: 20); _type8(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3,); _type9(m: 0, col: 4, lcol: 3, rObj: 20); _add(type: 0, x: 0, y: 0); _add(type: 1, x: 80, y: 0, vy: 3.535534); _add(type: 2, x: 160, y: 0, vy: 2.5); _add(type: 3, x: 220, y: 0, vy: 2.132007); _add(type: 4, x: 320, y: 0, vy: 1.767767); _add(type: 5, x: 1120, y: 0, vy: 0.9449112); _add(type: 6, x: 2060, y: 0, vy: 0.696733); _add(type: 7, x: 4120, y: 0, vy: 0.4926646); _add(type: 8, x: 8500, y: 0, vx: 0.004034842, vy: 0.3429616); _add(type: 9, x: 6460, y: 0, vx: 0.006089382, vy: 0.3933741);

PLAY: TASK ONE: OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

1. Name the planets correctly - you can use the Internet to learn which is which based on their order.

2. Color the planets with the right colors (NASA.org can help!).

3. Look at the mass of the planets. What do you find? What is the mass of the Sun? Why? What are the real masses of the planets and the Sun?

4. What happens if you change any planet’s mass to “1”? Why?

5. What happens if you try to space bowl with the Sun’s gravity with a small planet? Why?

Name the planets: Wikipedia also provides an excellent shorthand for setting the names. To rename the planets, click on them with the pointer tool and modify the name in the planet’s info box.Color the planets: The same Wikipedia article also provides an excellent guide on the color of the planets. Simply use the same dialog box that you use to rename the planets.Mass of the planets: The Sun’s mass is so massive relative to the planets that the planets have the simulator’s minimum value: 0. Since the Sun is set to be at the value 1000, even a value of 1 would be too much for a planet in relation to the Sun’s incredible mass! It’s important to note that the value 0 does not signify that the planets have no mass; just that they are very small

in every way when compared to the Sun.Changing a planet’s mass: Nothing. This change is not significant enough to override the Sun’s gravity in any way, so the same orbits persist.Space bowl: If the bowled planet’s velocity is great enough and/or it’s sufficiently far away from the Sun, it can pass by the Sun but its trajectory is very likely influenced by the Sun’s gravity. Other planets may also be slightly influenced by the planet you are bowling with, if they are close enough when the bowled planet moves.

SHARE & DISCUSS

● How does our Solar System work? How big is the Sun?

● Was there something you wanted to do in the simulator but didn’t know how to? What was it?

These questions are meant to get the students to open up and start a discussion. The answers do not matter as much as the fact that they are talking: the next slide provides opportunities for evaluation and should be more strictly observed.

How big is the Sun: The sun is truly enormous, its mass is approximately 332 946 times the mass of Earth!

SHARE & DISCUSS: TASKS AFTER PLAYING

● How big is the Sun’s mass in relation to the planets of our Solar System?

● What do the following terms mean: galaxy, star system, planetary system, the universe?

These tasks are used to revisit the lesson’s topics and can be answered in pairs, small groups or alone. It’s a good idea to give students a few minutes to think about these questions and then go through the answers in class together. These questions are intentionally difficult to provoke thought: do not be surprised if many of the students can’t provide the correct answers. The important part is for them to think of these concepts and then hear the correct answers which are provided below.

Expected answers:Sun’s mass: The Sun is truly enormous and contains over 98% of all the mass in our Solar System. In relation to our planet, the Sun has over 332 946 times the mass!

This incredible mass and size explain how the Sun is able to maintain all the planets in orbit.Galaxy: is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter.Star System: or Stellar System is a small number of stars that orbit each other.Planetary System: is a set of gravitationally bound non-stellar objects in orbit around a star or star system.The Universe: is all of time and space and its content, which includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space and all matter and energy.