How would earth be affected if its orbit around the sun were slower or faster?

Answer 1

If the Earth's orbital speed were to change it would have to change distance from the Sun to stay in orbit.

The orbit of a planet is governed by Kepler's third law #T^2=a^3#. Where #T# is the orbital period in years and #a# is the semi-major axis distance in AU.

A faster Earth would have a shorter orbital period, which would require a smaller orbital distance to maintain.

Similarly, if it moved more slowly, a larger distance would be needed to maintain orbit.

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Answer 2

Ian Aitchison

A slower orbit would result in lower temperatures and possibly even more disruptive climate patterns; a faster orbit would lead to higher temperatures and possibly even warmer climates that would impact ecosystems.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.