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Home Q & A Board Science-Related Homework Help Physics
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12 years ago
Explain how we can use Newton's version of Kepler's third law to measure the total mass of two stars in a binary system.
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#1
12 years ago
                   2
      Period (in years)                       1
   -----------------------   =   ----------------------------
                         3       mass of system (solar masses)
  semi-major axis (in AU)
 
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#2
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12 years ago
By observing the stars with a telescope, you can measure how far they move apart from each other (their orbital distance, a) and how long it takes them to move around each other (their orbital period, p). Then you use the formula   
p2 = (4*pi2)/G(m1+m2) a3 to derive the total mass of the two stars, M1 + M2.
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