Archimedes Laboratory Project™
Puzzles & Mental Activities that Enhance Critical and Creative Thinking Skills

	According to Kepler's laws the orbit of the Earth is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci (f). Moreover, a line segment joining our planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time (thus, sectors A1, A2 and A3 are of the same area). If gravity suddenly disappeared, would this still be true? Selon la 2ème loi de Kepler, le mouvement de la Terre est tel que le segment de droite reliant le soleil et notre planète balaie des aires égales pendant des durées égales (les secteurs A1, A2 et A3 sont de même aire). Si d’un coup la force de gravité venait à disparaître, cette loi serait-elle toujours valable ? Secondo la seconda legge di Keplero, il raggio vettore che congiunge il sole alla Terra copre lungo l'orbita aree uguali, in tempi uguali (ne consegue che i settori A1, A2 e A3 hanno la stessa area). Se d’un colpo la forza di gravità sparisse, questa legge sarebbe sempre valida? You can comment and discuss this puzzle on our FaceBook or Blogger web page. › Click to show/hide the solution Solution: Without gravity, the planet Earth would describe a straight line into deep space, and each time interval would define a triangle with height h and base t of same area, since each triangle’s area is 1/2 the product of ht. Please spread the word about the Sunday Puzzle!

Text and images by Gianni A. Sarcone 
Labels: SUNDAY PUZZLE, puzzles to solve, recreational mathematics, gravity
You can use the material shown on this page for educational purpose only as long as you credit us [© G. Sarcone, www.archimedes-lab.org] and link back to archimedes-lab.org
Sunday Puzzle by Gianni A. Sarcone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.archimedes-lab.org.

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