Kepler’s third law:

Kepler’s third law was published in 1619.

Statement of kepler’s 3rd law:

The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-
major axis of its orbit.

Other name of Kepler’s 3rd law:

This law is also known as law of periods.

 How Kepler’s discovered his third law?

As we now that his law states that the distance a planet is from the sun, cubed, is
directly proportional to the time it takes to complete the orbit, squared. More simply,
kepler found that distance a planet was located from the sun directly determined the time
it took the planet to revolve around the sun.
Relationship:
This captures the relationship between the distance of planets from the sun and their orbital
periods

Proof of kepler’s third law:

 
 The gravitational force between the sun and planet under consideration supplies the
centripetal force required for circular motion. Hence

GMm
mv²= r

T² is directly proportional to r³ since

T²=kr³
Now we are going to prove this relation so,

GM
r²ω²= r

2π
`Where r is the radius of orbit followed by planet of sun and putting ω as T we get:

2π GM
r²( T
) ²=
r

4 π ²r ³
T²= GM

4π²
GM
=constant=k
so it is proved that T² is directly proportional to cube of the radius

Hence this law is verified circular orbit. An similar results can be obtained for elliptical orbit by
replacing the radius r with semi major axis of ellipse.

Newtons version of Kepler’s third law:

Newton developed a more general form of what was called Kepler’s third law that could
apply to any two objects orbiting a common Centre of mass. This is called Newton’s version of
Kepler’s third law:

A³
M₁+M₂= P ²

Where P² is a special unit must be used to make this equation work.

Relationship between Newton’s laws and Kepler’s law:

 Newton’s laws are general and apply to any motion, while kepler’s laws apply only to
planetary motion in the solar system.

 Do kepler’s laws apply to moon?

Kepler’s laws are wonderful as a description of the motions of planets. However they
provide no explanation of why the planets move in this way. And in addition kepler’s
third law only works for planets around the sun and does not apply to the moons orbit
around the earth or the moon of the Jupiter.

Is Kepler’s third law is correct?

Yes Kepler’s law provides an accurate description of the period and distance for the planet’s
orbits about the sun.

Importance of kepler’s law

 Kepler’s law describe how planets (asteroids and comets) orbit the sun. They can also be
used to describe how moons orbit around a planet. But they do not just apply to our solar
system.

 They can be used to describe the orbits of any exo-planet around any star.