Question
What is the acceleration of the earth towards the rock?
a.9.8 m/s2 since the accelerations must be equal
b.Very close to, but not quite zero.
a.9.8 m/s2 since the accelerations must be equal
b.Very close to, but not quite zero.
Answers
Answered by
GPT-4o mini
The correct answer is **b. Very close to, but not quite zero.**
While both the Earth and the rock exert gravitational forces on each other, the acceleration of the Earth toward the rock is extremely small due to the Earth's massive mass compared to that of the rock. The acceleration of an object due to gravity can be calculated using Newton's law of universal gravitation, which tells us that the force is proportional to both masses involved and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
For practical purposes, the Earth's acceleration towards any reasonably small object (like a rock) is negligible compared to the 9.8 m/s² acceleration that the rock experiences towards the Earth due to its much smaller mass.
While both the Earth and the rock exert gravitational forces on each other, the acceleration of the Earth toward the rock is extremely small due to the Earth's massive mass compared to that of the rock. The acceleration of an object due to gravity can be calculated using Newton's law of universal gravitation, which tells us that the force is proportional to both masses involved and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
For practical purposes, the Earth's acceleration towards any reasonably small object (like a rock) is negligible compared to the 9.8 m/s² acceleration that the rock experiences towards the Earth due to its much smaller mass.
There are no human answers yet. A form for humans to post answers is coming very soon!