If the mass of planet Earth doubled, how would the force of gravity between Earth and the Sun change?(1 point)

Responses

The force of gravity would increase four times
The force of gravity would increase four times

The force of gravity would decrease by half
The force of gravity would decrease by half

The force of gravity would not change
The force of gravity would not change

The force of gravity would double

1 answer

The force of gravity between two objects is described by Newton's law of universal gravitation, which states that the gravitational force \( F \) is proportional to the product of the masses of the two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. The formula is:

\[ F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2} \]

where:

  • \( F \) is the force of gravity,
  • \( G \) is the gravitational constant,
  • \( m_1 \) and \( m_2 \) are the masses of the two objects (in this case, the Earth and the Sun),
  • \( r \) is the distance between the centers of the two objects.

If the mass of Earth doubles (let's denote the original mass of Earth as \( m \), then the new mass is \( 2m \)), and the mass of the Sun remains constant, the new force of gravity would be:

\[ F' = G \frac{(2m) m_{Sun}}{r^2} \]

From this we can see that the force of gravity will also double since the mass of the Earth is now \( 2m \) instead of \( m \).

Therefore, the correct response is:

The force of gravity would double.