What Do You Think?
Study the data below in graph and table form. What do you think now? Is the “constant” similar for all of the planets? This is easy to see from the graph. Why is the constant for Venus so much higher? Let’s dig deeper…
| Temperature (in Kelvin) |
Distance (in AU) |
Constant (T × D2) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 400 | 0.39 | 60.84 |
| Venus | 730 | 0.72 | 376.36 |
| Earth | 280 | 1.00 | 280.00 |
| Mars | 213 | 1.52 | 492.11 |
Source: WeatherSTEM