Acommunications satellite with a mass of 520 kg is in a circu- lar orbit about the earth. the radius of the orbit is 35,000 km as measured from the center of the earth. calculate

(a) the weight of the satellite on the surface of the earth and
(b) the gravita- tional force exerted on the orbiting satellite by the earth.

a)

b)

Explanation:

The weight of an object on the surface of the earth is calculated as follows

where is the weight, is the mass and is the acceleration of gravity, wich is equal to , and for this case:

Therefore the weight of the satellite will be:

The gravitational force is calculated with the following formula:

Where is the universal gravitational constant:

m1 is the mass of earth:

m2 is the satellite mass:

and r is the radius of the satellite orbit from the center of the earth:

Thus, the gravitational force excerted on the satellite by the Earth:

what was the acceleration of the 2 kg cart?

⇒ 16.0 cm/s2

what was the acceleration of the 4 kg cart?

⇒ 8.1 cm/s2

what was the acceleration of the 6 kg cart?

⇒ 5.3 cm/s2

neither accurate nor precise.