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jcook735
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Tidal effects in the Earth-Moon system are causing the Moon's orbital period to increase at a current rate of about 35 ms per century. Assuming the Moon's orbit around the Earth is circular, to what rate of change in the Earth-Moon distance does this correspond? Hint: differentiate Kepler's third law.
I know that I need to use T2 over r3 = T2 over r3
I tried converting the moon's period (27.3 days) to ms and putting the 35 ms into ms per day into ms per century, but that yielded no results, since the number was so small the ms/day didnt change the moon's period at all in my calculator, maybe I am supposed to do this one by hand? This method doesn't seem feasible sicne i will have to be squaring things, can someone help me?
Homework Equations
I know that I need to use T2 over r3 = T2 over r3
The Attempt at a Solution
I tried converting the moon's period (27.3 days) to ms and putting the 35 ms into ms per day into ms per century, but that yielded no results, since the number was so small the ms/day didnt change the moon's period at all in my calculator, maybe I am supposed to do this one by hand? This method doesn't seem feasible sicne i will have to be squaring things, can someone help me?