Education Technology

NUMB3RS - Season 3 - "Hardball" - Implicit Orbits

Activity Overview

In this activity, students will use implicit differentiation to study the paths of satellites. Specifically, what would happen to the path of a satellite if its planet vanished? This activity will focus on the direction of that travel by calculating the slope of the tangential path.

Before the Activity

Download the attached PDF and look over the Teacher Page.

During the Activity

Discuss the materials from the Student Page with your class.

After the Activity

Encourage students to explore Web sites and questions from the Extensions Page.