Question

Calculate the total force on the Earth due to Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, assuming all four planets are in a line,(Figure 1). The masses are mV=0.815mE

, mJ=318mE
, mSat
= 95.1mE
, and the mean distances of the four planets from the Sun are 108, 150, 778, and 1430 million km
.

Answer 1

To calculate the total force on Earth due to Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, we need to use the formula for gravitational force: F = G * (m1 * m2) / r^2 where F is the gravitational force, G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects, and r is the distance between them. First, we need to convert the distances to meters: dV = 108 million km * 1000 m/km = 1.08 x 10^11 m dJ = 150 million km * 1000 m/km = 1.5 x 10^11 m dSat = 778 million km * 1000 m/km = 7.78 x 10^11 m Next, we can calculate the forces due to each planet: FV =