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How does the Sun's gravity change with distance?

Show of hands — before you project anything

Predict first: if you keep flying away from the Sun, does the pull stop at one spot, or just keep getting smaller? How could you test it?

  • A Way more than you'd guess
  • B About what you'd guess
  • C Way less than you'd guess

Count the votes out loud. Hold them to it — then watch.

Project it (fullscreen)

Discussion prompts

  • Predict first: if you keep flying away from the Sun, does the pull stop at one spot, or just keep getting smaller? How could you test it?
  • Predict first: at double the distance the pull is a quarter. So what is it at four times the distance? (A sixteenth — keep halving-of-halving.)
  • If the Sun's pull never reaches a true zero, why do we still say a comet 'leaves' the Sun? What actually changes way out there?

Where it shows up in real life

  • Neptune, held in orbit billions of kilometres from the Sun
  • Comets from the Oort cloud that loop in from the Sun's faint, distant grip
  • Spacecraft like the Voyagers, still gently pulled by the Sun as they head for the stars

A prediction-first worksheet — no answer key.

zero prep · no login · any projector

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