Challenge Team Abstract

Team Number: 097 School Name: Tularosa Hiigh School Area of Science: Astronomy Project Title: The Planetary Gravitational Pull

If an object is hurtling towards Earth which of the nine planets would pull it away from us. Will it be pulled in or go around the planet. One thing that could determine this is the size, shape, and weight of the planets and the object. One other thing is where will the planets be in revolution. You will need a few formulas to figure this out. The gravitational pull formula is F=Gm1m2/d sq. The farther you get away from a planet the weaker the pull will be. In other words every time you get the length of the radius away it will be 1/1 sq. Then the next would be 1/2sq. 1/3sq. 1/4sq. 1/5sq. 1/6sq. etc... You will need to also figure where the planet is going to be and the time of year. So now if you put a certain size object, what speed it is going, what time of year it is. You can tell what direction it is going to take. Doing this you can figure out that if there is and asteroid or meteor coming in this direction where it will head and if it will hit Earth. This could give us some extra time to prepare for such an incident.

Team Members

• CHRISTOPHER BEIDELMAN
• JEFF YARBOROUGH
• MICHAEL BEIDELMAN
• MARCUS SANDY

Sponsoring Teachers

• Mr. Hudson

Project Advisor(s)