What happens to the gravitational force between two objects if one object's mass is tripled?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the gravitational force between two objects if one object's mass is tripled?
It triples
It halves
It remains the same
It increases by a factor of 9
The gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of the masses. If one mass is tripled, the force also triples.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the gravitational force between two objects if one object's mass is tripled?
Solution: The gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of the masses. If one mass is tripled, the force also triples.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand that gravitational force depends on the masses of the two objects and the distance between them.
Step 2: Remember the formula for gravitational force: F = G * (m1 * m2) / r^2, where F is the force, G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses, and r is the distance between the objects.
Step 3: If one object's mass (let's say m1) is tripled, it becomes 3 * m1.
Step 4: Substitute the new mass into the formula: F' = G * (3 * m1 * m2) / r^2.
Step 5: Notice that the new force F' is three times the original force F, because F' = 3 * (G * (m1 * m2) / r^2) = 3 * F.
Step 6: Conclude that if one object's mass is tripled, the gravitational force between the two objects also triples.
