Physics – Physics Education
Scientific paper
Jan 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005phyed..40...35s&link_type=abstract
Physics Education, Volume 40, Issue 1, pp. 35-45 (2005).
Physics
Physics Education
Scientific paper
Mars has fascinated mankind since antiquity. The retrograde motion of the red planet provided the impetus for the Earth-centred solar system of Ptolemy, and 1500 years later, for the Sun-centred solar system of Copernicus. Kepler's laws of planetary motion were the result of his all-out 'war on Mars' that lasted for about 18 years. Fascination for Mars reappeared in the beginning of the last century with the astronomer Percival Lowell's well publicized claim that intelligent life was responsible for the 'canals' that were sighted with a new powerful telescope. We are seeing a resurgence of this interest in the wake of many successful attempts to land on Mars in the last 30 years to study the surface and the atmosphere of the planet. Indeed, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is now cooperating with NASA in the quest for a full scale scientific assault on the red planet. In response to this new interest, we wrote an interactive computer program (ICP), illustrating the physics of planetary motion, that we have used successfully in lecture-demonstrations and with students in classrooms. The main part of this article describes two missions to Mars, and a third one that illustrates the capabilities of the ICP.
Begoray John
Stinner Arthur
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