Question

The orbital period of planet Venus is 0.62 years. What is its distance from the sun?

Answer 1

Kepler's third law shows the relationship between the orbital period of an object and the distance between the object and the object it orbits.

The simplified version of this law is: P^2 = a^3

Where,

P = period of the orbit in years = 0.62 years

a = average distance from the object to the object it orbits in AU. The astronomical unit AU is a unit of length which is roughly equivalent to the distance from Earth to the Sun.

Therefore calculating for a:

0.62 ^ 2 = a ^ 3

a = 0.62 ^ (2/3)

a = 0.727 AU = 0.72 AU

Therefore we can interpret this as: The distance from Venus to the Sun is about 72% of the distance from Earth to Sun.

Answer: B. 0.72 AU