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"Is it true that planets always follow the same path? Aren't they influenced by (as they get near to) other planets or to other planet's moons?"
Yes they are influenced, no they do not always follow the same path, but yes they do have stable orbits.
Stable does not mean following exactly the same path, it means recovering from any small deviation.
Imagine that you were dancing and swinging your partner round and round. The path followed would depend on how tired your arms were and whether your partner stumbled or you had to avoid some other dancer, but after each change, you would pull back into the same even distance apart.
When a planet is in a stable orbit and it approaches another large body, it accelerates toward it and swings a little further from the sun, but when it passes, the forces that decelerate it are exactly the same so it is slowed back down and put back in the orbit based on gravity and mass of it and the sun.
Yes they are influenced, no they do not always follow the same path, but yes they do have stable orbits.
Stable does not mean following exactly the same path, it means recovering from any small deviation.
Imagine that you were dancing and swinging your partner round and round. The path followed would depend on how tired your arms were and whether your partner stumbled or you had to avoid some other dancer, but after each change, you would pull back into the same even distance apart.
When a planet is in a stable orbit and it approaches another large body, it accelerates toward it and swings a little further from the sun, but when it passes, the forces that decelerate it are exactly the same so it is slowed back down and put back in the orbit based on gravity and mass of it and the sun.
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Planets actually have VERY dynamic orbits that change constantly because of the effects of the different planets' gravity on each other. When you remove Pluto's gravity from the Solar System, the orbits of the other planets are affected. GravIty simulator is FREEWARE that you can download and play with for hours. Jusot ONE simulation shattered some of my laongheld assumptions about the stability of the planets orbits and just increased my amazement that the planets orbits SEEM to so stable, but they actually are constantly changing.
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
Playing with that simulation for just a half hour certainly opened up my eyes,
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/ar…
Playing with that simulation for just a half hour certainly opened up my eyes,
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You find it strange?
Have you ever thrown a ball, only to find that at the apex, the ball suddenly goes left and then right in midair? No? I don't believe it....
Have you ever thrown a ball, only to find that at the apex, the ball suddenly goes left and then right in midair? No? I don't believe it....
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I know what u mean. I think that a planet has to get a certain distance from somethingwith gravitational pull and then its stuck for a while