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Kepler's 3 Laws of Planetary Motion


First Law:  The orbit of each planet is the shape of an ellipse with the sun located at one focus (Astronomia nova... (The New Astronomy...), 1609).

Second Law:  In any equal time interval, a line from a planet to the sun will sweep out equal areas (Astronomia nova..., 1609).


area of ABS = area of CDS = area of EFS

Third Law:   The ratio of the cube of the average distance of a planet from the sun to the square of the time required for it to make a revolution around the sun is equal to the same ratio for any other planet (Harmonice Mundi (The Harmony of the World), 1619).

D3Earth/T2Earth = D3Mars/T2Mars = D3Saturn/T2Saturn = ...      or      D3/T2 = K (constant)