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Question
How does the force of attraction between the two bodies depend upon their masses and the distance between them? A student thought that two bricks tied together would fall faster than a single one under the action of gravity. Do you agree with his hypothesis or not? Comment.
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Solution
From Newton’s law of gravitation, the force of attraction between two bodies is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centres i.e.,
F α `("m"_1"m"_2)/"d"^2`
The student’s hypothesis is wrong. As acceleration due to gravity is independent of the mass of the falling body, therefore, the two bricks tied together fall with the same speed as the single one to reach the ground at the same time under the action of gravity.
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