Question
Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, had a mass of 83.6kg and travelled at 7574 m/s. The radius of the earth is 6371 km and its mass is 5.972 x 10^24 kg. What gravitational force did Sputnik apply to the earth during this orbit?
What I've got so far: so, I think it's possible to use either Fg=GMm/r^2 or Fc=mv^2/r, is that correct? I calculated the force to be 4,795,014,967 N which seems quite big to me and is incorrect. In that calculation, I used 6,949,000 m for r as Sputnik would have been orbiting about 578,000 m above Earth. Obviously I made a mistake somewhere.
Thanks in advance!
What I've got so far: so, I think it's possible to use either Fg=GMm/r^2 or Fc=mv^2/r, is that correct? I calculated the force to be 4,795,014,967 N which seems quite big to me and is incorrect. In that calculation, I used 6,949,000 m for r as Sputnik would have been orbiting about 578,000 m above Earth. Obviously I made a mistake somewhere.
Thanks in advance!
Answers
Scott
did your G have the right units?
you are correct that either equation should work
Fg = Fc ... in orbit ...
recalculate, and watch your units
you are correct that either equation should work
Fg = Fc ... in orbit ...
recalculate, and watch your units
Grace
Okay, I used Fc=mv^2/r and got 690.14 N. I used 83.6kg for m, 7574 for v, and 6,949,000 for r. Does that sound right?
Thanks.
Thanks.