The moon revolves around the Earth in a circular orbit with a radius of 3.84 x 10^8 m. It takes 27.3 days for the moon to complete one orbit around Earth. What is the centripetal acceleration of the moon?
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2007-11-22 04:20:02 · 2 answers · asked by ☺♠JonasJay♫♦ 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Acceleration (towards the centre) is what keeps the orbit circular (no sideways acceleration means that the 'orbit' would be a straight line).
a = v^2 / R
where R is the orbital radius and v is the speed of the Moon (which you can find, since you are given the time for one whole orbit and the means to find the total circumference of one complete orbit -- speed = distance divided by time)
use distances in metres and speed in metres per second, and the acceleration will be in m/s^2.
Once you have the acceleration, you can use F = ma
Force (in Newtons, what you are seeking) = mass of the Moon (in kg, found on wikipedia) times the acceleration (calculated above in m/s^2).
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7.3477×10^mass of Moon: 22 kg
Length (circumference) or orbit = 2*pi*R
(R = 3.84 x 10^8 m given in your question).
27.3 days = 2,358,720 seconds
2007-11-22 04:32:33 · answer #1 · answered by Raymond 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
3.84x10^8/27.3
2007-11-22 12:24:26 · answer #2 · answered by qdawg 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋