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Kepler's 3rd law says that the orbital period is proportional to the 3/2 power of the average distance from the Sun. However Kepler did not know the distances to the planets when his laws were discovered. He was able to calculate the the relative distances by using geometry.

In Kepler's model the inner planets stay close to the Sun in the sky and have a maximum 'elongation' from it. Kepler was able to use these measurements to deduce by geometry what the sizes of the orbits of Mercury and Venus were, relative to the size of the Earth's orbit.

The outer planets all show retrograde motion around the time of opposition, as the Earth overtakes the planet. By knowing the amount of retrograde motion measured by Tycho, Kepler was able to deduce by geometry the sizes of the orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, relative to the size of the Earth's orbit.

The true scale of the planets' orbits was discovered in the 18th century through observations of transits of Venus.

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Is the semi-major axis concept an important part of Third Law of Motion?

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