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Your friend tells you that if you double the distance of a spacecraft from the planet, the gravitational force is one half as strong. Do you think this is correct?

Sagot :

Answer:

No. When the distance is doubled, the gravitational force is 1/4 times as strong, therefore, the correct answer is she is not correct

Explanation:

The gravitational force is given as follows;

[tex]F} =G \times \dfrac{m_{1} \times m_{2}}{r^{2}}[/tex]

Where;

m₁, and m₂ are the masses sharing the gravitational field

G = The universal gravitational constant

r = The distance between the centers of the two masses

Therefore, when the new distance, R = 2 × r, we get;

[tex]F} =G \times \dfrac{m_{1} \times m_{2}}{R^{2}} = G \times \dfrac{m_{1} \times m_{2}}{(2 \times r)^{2}} = G \times \dfrac{m_{1} \times m_{2}}{4 \times r^{2}} = \dfrac{1}{4} \times G \times \dfrac{m_{1} \times m_{2}}{r^{2}}[/tex]

Therefore, when the distance is doubled, the gravitational force is one fourth as strong, therefore, she is not correct.