Question

A student is trying to determine if she can use Newton’s equations to calculate force in each of the situations shown in the table. Use what you know about predicting an object’s motion to choose the correct entry from each drop-down menu to complete the table.

Answer 1

In the first option, we have two masses, the gravitational constant and the distance between the masses, therefore we can calculate the force using Newton's law of universal gravitation.

In the second case, we only have the gravitational constant and no masses, therefore the force cannot be determined.

In the third case, we also don't have the masses, therefore the force cannot be determined.