Question

It is said that people often behave in unusual ways during a full moon. a)

Calculate the gravitational force that the moon would exert on a 50.0 kg
student in your physics class. The Moon is 3.84 x 108 m away from Earth
and has a mass of 7.35 x 1022 kg.

Answer 1

The gravitational force that the moon would exert on a 50.0 kg student is approximately 1.16 Newtons.

Step-by-step explanation:

The gravitational force that the moon would exert on a 50.0 kg student can be calculated using Newton's law of universal gravitation, which states that the force of gravity between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Using the given information:

• Student's mass (ms) = 50.0 kg
• Moon's mass (mm) = 7.35 x 1022 kg
• Distance between the Moon and Earth (r) = 3.84 x 108 m

The formula to calculate the gravitational force (F) is:

F = G * (ms * mm) / r2

Where G is the gravitational constant (6.67 x 10-11 N m2/kg2).

Substituting the values:

F = (6.67 x 10-11 N m2/kg2) * (50.0 kg * 7.35 x 1022 kg) / (3.84 x 108 m)2 = 1.16 N

Therefore, the gravitational force that the moon would exert on a 50.0 kg student is approximately 1.16 Newtons.