Patrick will show how basic mathematics (school level calculus and algebra) is combined with the work of Sir Isaac Newton to provide us with the basic laws that have been used for centuries to determine planetary motion and predict stellar events (such as transits, close approaches of planets, etc...).  In particular, the talk will demonstrate the following.

1. How some of Kepler's Laws are derived (e.g. Keplers Third Law: A Line joining a planet and its star sweeps out equal areas during any equal intervals of time)
2. That the planets do indeed orbit in a plane (i.e. that the motions of the solar systems are essentially a two-dimensional problem)
3. That the planets' orbits follow elliptic paths