Orbit

One of our big questions about space was "Why are things in space orbiting?". Today we did an experiment to see how something can stay in orbit.

In our hypothesis, we thought that the water would fall out of the bucket. Shivkrant was the only one who thought that it would stay in the bucket. Turns out he was right!

We concluded that the water in the bucket was still falling; the bucket was just falling as fast as the water. When we slowed it down, the water was falling faster than the bucket, so it came out!

This is how the Moon orbits the Earth. The Moon is falling but the Earth is moving too. And because the Earth is round, the Moon will just keep falling in a circle around it.

Try it at home! All you need is a bucket with a handle and some water.