- #1
underworld
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Let's see if I can articulate this question the way that I'm thinking about it...
Imagine you have a big star (like the sun)... and every so often a comet or meteor (or even several of them) whiz past. My understanding is that the star's gravity will influence the path of the comets and/or meteors, right? Ok - that's the simple part.
Now - am I correct in assuming that it takes energy to influence the path of the comet or meteor? I would think yes - otherwise the comet would continue on its merry way in its current direction. Just to rephrase:
Question 1) Does it take energy for a larger body to influence (gravitationally) the path of a smaller body?
Next point - am I correct in assuming that the energy has transferred from the star to the comet? I think the answer is yes since the comet could easily be observed to change its path. So:
Question 2) Is there an energy transfer between two bodies during gravitational attraction?
Now my final point - which is a little weird - if the above assertions are true - then what happens when a large number of comets and meteors pass by the star? Does each use up a little of the star's energy? And, perhaps more interestingly, does a single object which repeatedly uses a star's energy (such as a smaller body in orbit) continuously use up that energy?
Question 3) Will continuous energy transfer due to gravitational attraction eventually deplete the energy of a body?
The only answer I can come up with is that there is an energy transfer, but it somehow occurs bi-directionally. I.e. as the star's energy is used to alter the path of the meteor, somehow that energy is returned back to the star during the process - but I have no idea how or why that would occur.
I'm sure there's a simple explanation for this. I imagine the same questions apply to natural magnets...
Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated...
Imagine you have a big star (like the sun)... and every so often a comet or meteor (or even several of them) whiz past. My understanding is that the star's gravity will influence the path of the comets and/or meteors, right? Ok - that's the simple part.
Now - am I correct in assuming that it takes energy to influence the path of the comet or meteor? I would think yes - otherwise the comet would continue on its merry way in its current direction. Just to rephrase:
Question 1) Does it take energy for a larger body to influence (gravitationally) the path of a smaller body?
Next point - am I correct in assuming that the energy has transferred from the star to the comet? I think the answer is yes since the comet could easily be observed to change its path. So:
Question 2) Is there an energy transfer between two bodies during gravitational attraction?
Now my final point - which is a little weird - if the above assertions are true - then what happens when a large number of comets and meteors pass by the star? Does each use up a little of the star's energy? And, perhaps more interestingly, does a single object which repeatedly uses a star's energy (such as a smaller body in orbit) continuously use up that energy?
Question 3) Will continuous energy transfer due to gravitational attraction eventually deplete the energy of a body?
The only answer I can come up with is that there is an energy transfer, but it somehow occurs bi-directionally. I.e. as the star's energy is used to alter the path of the meteor, somehow that energy is returned back to the star during the process - but I have no idea how or why that would occur.
I'm sure there's a simple explanation for this. I imagine the same questions apply to natural magnets...
Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated...