What is the effect of increasing the altitude of a satellite on its orbital peri
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the altitude of a satellite on its orbital period?
It decreases
It increases
It remains the same
It becomes zero
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the effect of increasing the altitude of a satellite on its orbital period?
Correct Answer: Increasing the altitude increases the orbital period.
Step 1: Understand what altitude means. Altitude is how high the satellite is above the Earth.
Step 2: Know what orbital period means. The orbital period is the time it takes for the satellite to complete one full orbit around the Earth.
Step 3: Learn about Kepler's third law. This law states that the square of the orbital period of a satellite is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit (which is related to altitude).
Step 4: Realize that when you increase the altitude of the satellite, you are increasing the semi-major axis of its orbit.
Step 5: According to Kepler's third law, if the semi-major axis increases, the orbital period also increases.
Step 6: Conclude that increasing the altitude of a satellite results in a longer orbital period.
