a.) a short rectangle
b.) an egg with a pointy end
c.) a long narrow oval
d.) a circle
2007-04-15 05:28:50 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Those descriptions of round shapes are terrible for something as well defined as an ellipse.
But Circle is approximately how most planets orbit, not necessarily a perfect circle though.
2007-04-15 05:31:57 · answer #1 · answered by tom 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The closer the eccentricity of an ellipse is to zero, the more like a circle it is. For the planets in our solar system the Planetary orbit eccentricities are:
Mercury .206
Venus .0068
Earth .0167
Mars .0934
Jupiter .0485
Saturn .0556
Uranus .0472
Neptune .0086
Pluto .25
Even the largest, Pluto's .25 e looks a lot like a circle.
2007-04-15 05:48:01 · answer #2 · answered by pschroeter 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lousy choice of answers. However, what they are almost certainly looking for is (d). All planetary orbits in our solar system are ellipses with low eccentricity, i.e. close to circular. Comet orbits, on the other hand, are often of very high eccentricity, i.e. long narrow ovals.
2007-04-15 05:47:20 · answer #3 · answered by Astronomer1980 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
C
2007-04-19 01:44:17 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋