Kepler's 3rd law: ratios don't fit data

that equality should be a proportional to sign. In particular, in SI, the squared period has units of seconds squared, and the semi-major radius of of the orbit cubed is in meters cubed, so they can't be equal.

Instead, I'd be checking whether $T^{2}/a^{3}$ is constant for different satellites orbiting the same object (Like the ISS and the moon, for example)


The general form of Kepler's period law is $T^2 = \frac{4\pi^2}{G(M+m)}a^3$. Often, we make the simplifying assumption that $M\gg m$, so that $M+m \approx M$.

Kepler's period law only takes the form $T^2 = a^3$ (forgetting about the units) when you use certain quantities- in this case, $M$ being solar mass, $T$ being an Earth year, and $a$ being an astronomical unit.

Try plugging into the equation for the mass of earth (and don't bother with the satellite mass) and use units of meters and seconds. See if you get the right result!