Table of Contents

Your Weight on Other Planets

Module 4: The Planets

Button controls:

• (1) Help button:
  • This button will open a window with help information
• (2) Planet images:
  • Rolling the cursor over the images of the planets will display information windows containing the planet's mass and radius, both inherent and compared to the Earth
• (6) Calculate: Use this button to perform the calculate the weight on the different planets
• (7) Reset: Use this button to reset the applet including all weights

Using the applet:

This applet has been designed so that students are able to investigate weights on other planets. It is suggested that students begin by viewing planetary data (3) and then making educated guesses as to their weight on the various planets. These values can be inserted into the text fields (4) under the planet images (2). The students can then be asked to input their actual weight on Earth (5), and will use the calculate button (6) to show their actual weights on the different planets.

The goal of this applet is to address the misconception that the size and mass of a planet are the only contributing factors to weights on other planets. While mass is an important factor, the density of a planet will also affect weight. This is why a student would still weigh more on Earth than they would on Saturn and Uranus despite the large masses of those planets.