The radius of the Earth is approximately 6000 km. The acceleration of an astronaut in a perfectly circular orbit 300 km above the Earth would be most nearly.

Question

For this question I simply guessed. I knew "a" was 9.8 on the surface, and my answers were 0, 0.05, 5, 9, and 11, so I chose 9 and was right. Is there any algebraic/conceptual way to answer this besides my awesome guessing skills?

Answer 1

You are good! All you need is guessing skills for that problem.

Answer 2

THANK YOU!!! That pretty much tripled my physics self-esteem for the night :)

Answer 3

anytime

Answer 4

The gravitaional field constant is proportional to the inverse of distance squared.

acceleartion= 9.8[ (6000km)/(6000km+300km)]^2

= 9.8 (1/(1+3/20) )^2= 9.8 (1/1.015)^2 close to your answer.

Answer 5

correction

= 9.8/1.15^2