Question

An astronaut on a spacewalk 200km above Earth drops a hammer (mass 2kg), which goes into orbit about the Earth (radius 6,400km) How long does it take the hammer to orbit the Earth?

Answer 1

See below

Step-by-step explanation:

T = period of orbit = sqrt ( 4 pi^2 r^3 / (G Me) )

G = gravitational constant 6.6743 x 10^-11 m^3 / (kg-s^2)

Me = mass of earth = 6 x 10^24 kg

r = radius = 6600 km = 6,600,000 m

plug in the values to find T = 5323.75 seconds

(check my math)