Gravitation practice

Constants: g = 9.81 m s-2 near Earth's surface G = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 kg-2

Radius of earth = 6.38 x 106 m Mass of earth = 5.97 x 1024 kg

1. [typical exam question] Calculate the orbit radius of an Earth satellite if it has an orbit period of 1 day. [4]

2. [important question] Show that for an object in orbit, (period)2 is proportional to (radius)3.[3]

3. Show that the highest speed that a car can travel at is about 8000 m s -1 without the car flying off the
Earth's surface due to the Earth's curvature [3].
4. An object at the earth's surface is launched with a velocity of 7500 m s-1 straight up.

a) Assuming constant gravity, calculate the maximum height achieved by this object, neglecting air
resistance.[2]

b) Comment on whether the number obtained in part a) is accurate.[2]

c) Consider reality now, in which gravity varies. Calculate the maximum possible height reached by the
object.[3]

5. Two stars, mass 8.0 x 1030 and 1.8 x 1031 kg respectively, are located 1.0 x 1017 meters apart.

a) Find the position between the two stars where the gravitational field due to these 2 stars is exactly zero.[3]

b) Draw the gravitational field pattern around the two stars, and draw the gravitational potential pattern
around the two stars.[2 each]
c) A student claims that the gravitation potential at the location calculated at (a) is zero. Evaluate this
claim.[2]

6. Consider a hypothetical tunnel through the earth connecting the two poles.

It is given that at a distance R, R < REarth, from the centre of a solid stellar object like the Earth, the gravitation field
strength (and hence gravitational force) depends only on the mass enclosed by an imaginary sphere with radius R,
and not on the mass to the exterior of the imaginary sphere.

Assume that the Earth consists of uniform material.

a) Calculate the density of the Earth. [2]

b) Show that an object passing through this hypothetical tunnel will undergo simple harmonic motion [4]

c) Show that a penguin falling into the south-pole end of the tunnel will take about 40 minutes to arrive at
the north pole. [3] Also, calculate the maximum possible speed achieved by the penguin. [3]
7. A satellite is in an orbit around Earth with a period of 1.6 days.

a) Calculate the height above Earth at which the satellite is orbiting. [3]

b) The satellite now needs to be moved to a higher orbit.

i) The overall KE will decrease. State whether PE and total energy will each increase or decrease. [2]

ii) Satellite can change paths by ejecting amounts of gas. Explain how this works, using momentum
ideas. [3]

iii) Describe the steps that allow the satellite to move to a higher stable circular orbit. [4]