Question

A force of 5.25 newtons acts on an object of a mass 25.5 kilograms. How far is the object from the center of Earth? (The value of G is 6.673 × 10-11 newton meter2/kilogram2. The mass of Earth is 5.98 × 1024 kilograms.)

Answer 1

The force between two objects is calculated through the equation,

F = Gm₁m₂/d²

where m₁ and m₂ are the masses of the objects. In this case, an unknown mass and Earth. d is the distance between them and G is the universal gravitation constant.

In the second case, if the force is to become 2.5 times the original and all the variables are constant except d then,

2.5F = Gm₁m₂ / (D²)

D = 0.623d

Subsituting the known value of d,

D = 0.623(6.9 x 10^8) = 4.298 x 10^8 m