When a planet is farthest from the sun in its orbit:?

Question

Is its speed the greatest?

Is its speed the same as when it is farther away?

Is its speed the least?

or does it depend on which planet it is?

Answer 1

speed is the same...laws of inirtia apply in space...an object in motion stays in motion unless it is disturbed.

Answer 2

Speed is the least. Thats actually Kepler's 2nd law of planetary motion I believe. "A planet has the lowest velocity when it is farthest from the the sun, and the highest velocity when it is closer to the sun."

This is because of gravity. A good way to demenstrate is to take a big piece of plastic, stretch is out evenly, and taut, and then drop a bowling ball in the middle. When you have marbles moving around it, you can see that the ones close move faster because of the ditch the bowling ball makes. This demonstration breaks down because the marbles don't have enough inertia to not fall into the bowling ball.

Answer 3

Its speed is the least.

Think of it in terms of conservation of energy---the energy of the planet is conserved around its orbit, and when it's furthest from the Sun, the potential energy is greatest so the kinetic energy must be least.

Answer 4

Speed is the least.  

Farther from sun = slower,

closer to sun = faster,

in orbital velocity

Answer 5

the speed is the least!

"As the planets orbit the Sun, they travel at different speeds. Each planet speeds up when it is nearer the Sun and travels more slowly when it is far from the Sun (this is Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion). "

Answer 6

It's speed is the least.   the farther from the sun a planet is, the slower it's speed must be to maintain it's orbit.

Answer 7

its speed us at the least because it isn't being pulled as much.

Answer 8

its speed the least