Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
As the earth rotates about its axis, a person living in his house at the equator goes in a circular orbit of radius equal to the radius of the earth. Why does he/she not feel weightless as a satellite passenger does?
Advertisements
Solution
A person living in a house at the equator will not feel weightlessness because he is not in a free fall motion. Satellites are in free fall motion under the gravitational pull of the earth, but, due to the curved surface of the Earth, they move in a circular path. The gravitational force on the satellite due to the Sun provides the centripetal force for its revolution. Therefore, net force on the satellite is zero and, thus, a person feels weightless in a satellite orbiting the earth.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
A nut becomes loose and gets detached from a satellite revolving around the earth. Will it land on the earth? If yes, where will it land? If no, how can an astronaut make it land on the earth?
No part of India is situated on the equator. Is it possible to have a geostationary satellite which always remains over New Delhi?
A body stretches a spring by a particular length at the earth's surface at the equator. At what height above the south pole will it stretch the same spring by the same length? Assume the earth to be spherical.
At what rate should the earth rotate so that the apparent g at the equator becomes zero? What will be the length of the day in this situation?
A pendulum having a bob of mass m is hanging in a ship sailing along the equator from east to west. When the ship is stationary with respect to water the tension in the string is T0. (a) Find the speed of the ship due to rotation of the earth about its axis. (b) Find the difference between T0 and the earth's attraction on the bob. (c) If the ship sails at speed v, what is the tension in the string? Angular speed of earth's rotation is ω and radius of the earth is R.
Choose the correct option.
The binding energy of a satellite revolving around the planet in a circular orbit is 3 × 109 J. It's kinetic energy is ______.
Answer the following question.
What do you mean by geostationary satellite?
Answer the following question in detail.
Two satellites A and B are revolving round a planet. Their periods of revolution are 1 hour and 8 hour respectively. The radius of orbit of satellite B is 4 × 104 km. Find radius of orbit of satellite A.
Solve the following problem.
Calculate the value of the universal gravitational constant from the given data. Mass of the Earth = 6 × 1024 kg, Radius of the Earth = 6400 km, and the acceleration due to gravity on the surface = 9.8 m/s2.
Solve the following problem.
What is the gravitational potential due to the Earth at a point which is at a height of 2RE above the surface of the Earth?
(Mass of the Earth is 6 × 1024 kg, radius of the Earth = 6400 km and G = 6.67 × 10–11 N m2 kg–2)
An aircraft is moving with uniform velocity 150 m/s in the space. If all the forces acting on it are balanced, then it will ______.
Assuming that the earth is revolving around the sun in circular orbit of radius 'R', the angular momentum is directly proportional to rn. The value of 'n' is ______.
Out of following, the only correct statement about satellites is ____________.
The ratio of energy required to raise a satellite to a height `(2R)/3` above earth's surface to that required to put it into the orbit at the same height is ______.
R = radius of the earth
A satellite of mass 'm' is revolving around the earth of mass 'M' in an orbit of radius 'r' with constant angular velocity 'ω'. The angular momentum of the satellite is ______.
(G =gravitational constant)
In the case of earth, mean radius is 'R', acceleration due to gravity on the surface is 'g', angular speed about its own axis is 'ω'. What will be the radius of the orbit of a geostationary satellite?
Satellites orbiting the earth have finite life and sometimes debris of satellites fall to the earth. This is because ______.
An artificial satellite is moving in a circular orbit around the earth with a speed equal to half the magnitude of escape velocity from the earth. If the satellite is stopped in its orbit and allowed to fall freely onto the earth, the speed with which it hits the surface ______ km/s.
[g = 9.8 ms-2 and Re = 6400 km]
A satellite is revolving around a planet in a circular orbit close to its surface and ρ is the mean density and R is the radius of the planet, then the period of ______.
(G = universal constant of gravitation)
