Question

Calculate the force of Earth's gravity on a spacecraft 12, 800 km (2 Earth radii) above the Earth's surface if its mass is 1100 kg.

Please correct

Answer 1

Screen 1 of 1 View Options X Close Earth has a radius of 6.38x106 m, and a mass of 5.98x1024 kg, now since the spacecraft is two earth radii above the surface of the earth, it is three earth radii from the center, which is the distance you want to use in the formula for gravity. So now we know that the center to center distance is 3(6.38x10°m) 1.914x107 m So now we just plug into the formula for gravitational force: F (6.67x10-11 Nm2/kg2)(5.98x1024 kg) 1100 kg)/(1.914x10 m)1197.66N 1197.66 N 7:39 AM ENG 21-Feb-17