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A satellite near Earth makes a full circle in about an hour and a half. How long would it take a satellite located as far away as the moon to orbit Earth?

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Final answer:

The time it takes for a satellite to orbit Earth increases with distance from the planet. The ISS orbits Earth in about 90 minutes, while the Moon, being much farther away, takes approximately 27.3 days to complete its orbit.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question pertains to the orbital period of artificial satellites and the Moon. Specifically, it asks about the time it takes for a satellite to orbit Earth compared to the Moon's orbital period. The International Space Station (ISS), which orbits much closer to Earth, completes an orbit in about 90 minutes. In contrast, the Moon, which orbits at a distance of approximately 384,000 kilometers from Earth, takes about 27.3 days to complete its orbit. Using this information and considering Kepler's third law, which relates the orbital period to the distance from the central body, we can infer that the duration of a satellite's orbit increases significantly with distance from Earth.

An artificial satellite at a distance of 1.45×104 km from Earth's center takes approximately 0.200 days to orbit Earth. The Moon, being significantly further away at about 3.84×105 km, takes about a month, or more accurately, 27.3 days to complete its orbit. This is due to the fact that the greater the distance from Earth, the longer the orbital period, since the gravitational influence decreases with distance and the orbital path is longer.

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