- #1
hold AP 2010
- 3
- 0
When a falling meteoroid is at a distance above the Earth's surface of 3.00 times the Earth's radius, what is its acceleration due to the Earth's gravitation?
Denken said:as a rule of thumb the acceleration of gravity on Earth is 9.8m/s ... so unless they want you to do a lot of research i'd say that's it or 32ft/s
Gnosis said:Pardon brno17, but your answer is also incorrect.
The OP stated that a meter is falling from a distance above the Earth's surface of 3 Earth radii, which means a total of 4 Earth radii from the Earth's center of mass. That makes the acceleration by Earth's gravitational field per that distance (4 Earth radii)
<< solution to schoolwork question deleted by berkeman >>
Free-fall acceleration is the acceleration an object experiences when falling freely under the influence of gravity. This acceleration is constant and is approximately equal to 9.8 meters per second squared (m/s^2) near the Earth's surface.
Free-fall acceleration is directly related to the gravitational force. According to Newton's second law of motion, the force acting on an object is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. In the case of free-fall, the gravitational force is the only force acting on the object, so the acceleration experienced is solely due to gravity.
The gravitational force decreases with distance between two objects. This relationship is described by Newton's law of universal gravitation, which states that the force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
No, the mass of an object does not affect its free-fall acceleration. As stated before, the acceleration of an object in free-fall is solely due to the gravitational force, which is independent of the object's mass. This means that all objects, regardless of their mass, will experience the same acceleration when falling freely.
The value of free-fall acceleration may differ on other planets due to variations in their mass and radius. For example, on the moon, which has less mass and a smaller radius than Earth, the free-fall acceleration is approximately 1.6 m/s^2. On the other hand, on Jupiter, which has a much larger mass and radius than Earth, the free-fall acceleration is approximately 25 m/s^2.