A satellite is in a circular orbit around the Earth. If it moves to a higher orbit, what happens to its potential energy?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
A satellite is in a circular orbit around the Earth. If it moves to a higher orbit, what happens to its potential energy?
It increases.
It decreases.
It remains constant.
It becomes zero.
As the satellite moves to a higher orbit, its gravitational potential energy increases due to the increase in distance from the Earth's center.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: A satellite is in a circular orbit around the Earth. If it moves to a higher orbit, what happens to its potential energy?
Solution: As the satellite moves to a higher orbit, its gravitational potential energy increases due to the increase in distance from the Earth's center.
Steps: 4
Step 1: Understand that a satellite orbits the Earth due to gravity.
Step 2: Recognize that gravitational potential energy depends on the distance from the center of the Earth.
Step 3: Realize that when the satellite moves to a higher orbit, it is moving further away from the Earth's center.
Step 4: Conclude that as the distance increases, the gravitational potential energy of the satellite also increases.
