How does the centripetal force keeps the earth t....?

Question

Why doesnt the earth hit the sun due to gravitational force....how does centripetal force keep it moving in fixed orbits?

Answer 1

The earth falls toward the sun, its just that the horizontal (orbital) velocity moves us out of the way of collision.

Answer 2

It is not centripetal force. The only force involved here is gravity. Gravity causes centripetal acceleration.
The earh moves forward in a straight line due to momentum. Gravity exerts a force against the earth that causes centripetal accelleration and changes the direction of the earth's motion. Gravity and momentum are in perfect balance and so the earth's orbit becomes and ellipse with a very low eccentricity (making it almost, but not quite, a circle)

Answer 3

As the sun's gravity tries to pull the Earth inwards towards the sun, the Eath's orbital motion around the sun tends to make the Earth want to move away from the sun. The two tendencies cancel each other out, providing the Earth with a stable orbit.

Answer 4

The earth is moving along in a perfectly straight line. Everything moves this way. Why? Like we all know and had pounded into our heads in physics class: Every object in motion will remain in that state of motion unless acted upon by some external force.
Now, leaving Newtonian physics behind and getting into relativity (general theory anyway), we also know that matter warps or curves spacetime. Extremely large amount of matter will cause severe curvature of spacetime. The earth moves along in a straight path through the curved space of the Sun's gravity well--as do all the planets. Eventually, if the Sun didn't turn into a red giant in a few billion years, the earth would lose it "forward" momentum and drift closer and then into the Sun. But, for now it has enough velocity to keep up sailing along in the comfort zone of our solar system.

Answer 5

Earth goes round the Sun in a elliptical orbit with Sun at one of the foci.It is in dynamic equilibrium. the motion is as per Kepler's laws. Inertial forces,centripetal gravitational force and centrifugal acceleration are the forces in play. The net force acting on earth makes it move in an elliptical orbit. It travels faster when Sun is near and slows down when far away.

Answer 6

Firstly, imagine what would happen to the Earth if the suns' gravity just stopped. The earth wouldn't carry on in a circle, but just go in a straight line in the direction it was when the gravity stopped.

Of course, the Suns' gravity is constant, so the result of the earth wanting to carry on in a straight line and the suns' gravity pulling it in causes what we call circular motion. The earth's direction of movement is always (at any instance) at right angles to the centripetal force of the sun.

Answer 7

It isn't centripetal (or any other) force -- it's inertia. The earth is continually falling toward the sun, but just as continually falling around it. Since there is no dissipative mechanism to degrade the earth's energy of revolution, the revolution continues indefinitely. It works exactly the same way as the moon (or an artificial satellite) orbits the earth.

Answer 8

The Earth was born from a disc of dust which was rotating around the Sun. The inertia keeps it going still.

Answer 9

Angular momentum. No, not all celestial bodies spin. Examples of such: abnormal galaxies and nebula. in spite of the undeniable fact that, very almost all bodies which have or are collapsing as a results of gravitational charm do spin. the reason of it really is an same answer as above.

Answer 10

like the motion