Question

Compare the weight of a 5.00-kg object on Earth’s surface to the gravitational force between a 5.00-kg object that is one Earth radius from another object of mass equal to 5.98 × 10 24 kg . Use Newton’s universal law of gravitation for the second part of the question

Answer 1

given,

mass of an object = 5 Kg

mass of the other object = 5.98 x 10²⁴ Kg

radius of earth = 6371 Km = 6.371 x 10⁶ m

comparison between gravitational force between two object and weight of the object.

gravitational force between two objects

`F = (Gm_1m_2)/(r^2)`

`F = (6.67 * 10^(-11)* 5 * 5.98 * 10^(24))/((6.371 * 10^6)^2)`

F = 49.134 N

weight of the object on the earth surface

F = m g

F = 5 x 9.81

F = 49.05 N

From the above two calculation we can conclude that gravitational force is approximately equal to weight of the body.