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Student Worksheet 6.1
Earth Model

In this activity, you will make a model of the Earth (the basketball) which shows the equatorial plane and the shuttle's orbital plane.

Procedure

1. Place one dot sticker on the top of the basketball to represent the North Pole.

2. Place a second sticker (of the same color) directly opposite the first sticker (on the bottom of the ball) to represent the South Pole.

3. Find the "equator" on the basketball which separates the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Wrap a piece of wire around the equator of the ball.

4. Cut the piece of wire. (It should just fit around the ball.)

5. Measure with a ruler the length of the wire to find the distance around the ball.

Question:
What is the circumference of the basketball? __________in

Making the Equatorial Plane

6. Manipulate the piece of wire to form a circle.

7. Trace the circle in the middle of one of your pieces of paper and cut out the circle. You should now have a piece of paper with a circular hole in the middle.

8. Place the paper around the "equator" of the basketball.

This is your equatorial plane!

Making the Orbital Plane

9. To make the orbital plane, repeat steps six and seven using the second piece of paper, of a different color. Remember: the orbital plane will be at an angle to the equator, but it still has the same circumference. (Why? Because the orbital plane always passes through the Earth's center.)

10. Draw an orbit on the orbital plane.

This is your orbital plane!

11. Take the same wire and cut it in half so that there are now two pieces of wire of equal length.

12. Wrap the wire half-way around the equator, and mark the beginning and the end of the wire on the ball with the other pair of stickers. (These round stickers will represent the ascending and descending nodes.)

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