Why Planets Orbit In The Same Plane!

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Why Planets Orbit in the Same Plane!
We live in a 3D space, but have you ever wondered why our Solar System is always presented in a 2D disc shape? Well, that’s what we’re going to explore, in today’s episode!

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What’s the most popular elementary school project you can think of? Seeds grown from paper? The foam volcano?

Whatever it is, I bet that if I ask you to make a list, one of the items that would be on the top of it will be a model of the Solar System.

If you would recall, these models are basically concentric circles with balls placed somewhere on the circles’ circumferences. The balls represent the planets, while the circles represent the orbits.
Of course, you wouldn’t tune in to this episode if the answers were that easy, would you? Despite being counterintuitive, the elementary science fair model of the Solar System is actually as close to reality as it could get.

I know what you think: but that doesn’t make sense! We have a three dimensional space, so naturally, we can expect that every structure in the universe would be in 3D too!

Now, I’m not saying that logic isn’t right. It does make sense that if we are in 3D space, then we expect 3D structures. For instance, some stars could experience an extremely strong influence of gravity causing them to collect together and form a spherical structure that are called globular clusters. They’re a common sight in the universe. In fact, in our very own Milky Way galaxy alone, we are bound to find around 150 of these stellar clusters. But they’re not the star of the show today.

This is all too weird, right? With all the freedom of motion they have, with all the space that is available for them to move about, a lot of heavenly bodies seem to favor moving in a very confined manner. But how and why exactly does this happen?

Well, to be able to understand how motion in the universe ends up this way, or at least in the Solar System, we need to recall two important concepts in physics. First, we need to re-learn angular momentum. I know, a lot of you our viewers have a pretty strong grasp of a lot of topics in Physics, but we here in the channel want to invite more and more people to be interested in science! So, for their sake, I’ll make a brief walkthrough of what that is.

Second, we need to recall how our very own Solar System was formed: around five billion years ago, back when the Sun wasn’t even a star yet.

Ready? Okay, so here it goes.

So, angular momentum first.

If you know linear momentum, then, angular momentum wouldn’t be too hard to grasp. Linear momentum is the tendency of an object to move in a straight line, by that logic, we can say that angular momentum is the tendency of an object to rotate.

I hope you’re not lost so far. Trust me, learning this is really important in understanding the main goal of the video.

Now, there are two most fundamentally conserved quantities of motion in the universe. On one hand, we have energy and then momentum on the other. By this logic, we can derive that all momenta are conserved. Even the angular one.

So, okay, angular or rotational momentum is conserved. What does that imply?

Say for example, you have a top that’s spinning perpetually. It doesn’t stop, it just keeps spinning and spinning, so you can perform measurements on it anyway you like. Now, say for instance, you measure the angular momentum of this spinner at one time. After doing the task, you felt hungry, so you came out for a long lunch, then came back and measured it again. By conservation laws, you ought to get the about same value for angular momentum as you did earlier.

Angular momentum depends on two factors: first, the distribution of mass in the spinning object; and second, how fast this object spins. Let’s relate that with rotational momentum’s need to be conserved all the time.

Since the value of angular momentum is constant because of conservation laws, whatever change in one factor, the other has to compensate. For instance, if the distribution of mass becomes less, say for example, the volume of this object decreases, then, the rotation has to increase. You can see how this works in ice skaters spinning faster when they draw their hands closer to their bodies.

Can you piece it together now? The blob that was the cloud of particles earlied becomes flatter and flatter, and voila! We have a flat protocloud disc !

#InsaneCuriosity #Planets #TheSolarSystem

Видео Why Planets Orbit In The Same Plane! канала Insane Curiosity