Orbits Concept

Demonstrations in Orbits

Top-down UV view of neoprene sheet with fluorescent dot grid; a dark heavy ball sits in a central depression with a glowing spiral trail from a fluorescent ball orbiting inward
Safety

Gravity Well

A stretched neoprene sheet models a 2D gravitational potential well. Students observe how mass creates a depression and how smaller objects orbit, spiral in, or escape depending on launch velocity. …
Dissectible wooden cone model with five removable pieces showing conic section cross-sections, held together with metal alignment pins

Conic Sections

Visual aid for understanding conic sections -- circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas -- as planar cuts through a cone. Connects the geometry to orbital trajectories under gravity: orbit shape depends …
Blackboard with several concentric chalk ellipses of varying eccentricity; two magnetic pulleys serve as foci with a string loop running to a third chalk-holding pulley below

Blackboard Ellipse Maker

Draws precise ellipses on the blackboard using a string-and-pulley mechanism that enforces the constant-distance-sum definition. Illustrates Kepler's First Law and shows how changing the focus separation changes eccentricity.