Question

What gravitational force is exerted by two objects that are 5.0m apart if one has a mass of 12.0kg and the other has a mass of 35.0kg?

Answer 1

Given,

The separation between the objects, r=5.0 m

The mass of one of the objects, m₁=12.0 kg

The mass of another object, m₂=35.0 kg

According to Newton's law of gravitation, the gravitational force of attraction between two objects is directly proportional to the product of the mass of the objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects.

Thus the gravitational force between two given objects is,

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

Where G is the gravitational constant.

On substituting the known values,

`\begin{gathered} F=(6.67*10^(-11)*12.0*35.0)/(5.0^2) \\ =1.12*10^(-9)\text{ N} \end{gathered}`

Thus the gravitational force exerted by the given objects is 1.12×10⁻⁹ N.