What is the escape velocity for a satellite to leave Earth's gravitational field?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the escape velocity for a satellite to leave Earth's gravitational field?
7.9 km/s
11.2 km/s
9.8 km/s
5.0 km/s
The escape velocity from the Earth's surface is approximately 11.2 km/s.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the escape velocity for a satellite to leave Earth's gravitational field?
Solution: The escape velocity from the Earth's surface is approximately 11.2 km/s.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what escape velocity means. It is the speed needed for an object to break free from a planet's gravitational pull without any additional propulsion.
Step 2: Know that the escape velocity depends on the mass of the planet and the distance from its center.
Step 3: For Earth, the escape velocity is calculated using the formula: v = sqrt(2 * G * M / r), where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the Earth, and r is the radius of the Earth.
Step 4: Plug in the values for Earth's mass and radius into the formula to find the escape velocity.
Step 5: The result of this calculation shows that the escape velocity from the Earth's surface is approximately 11.2 kilometers per second.
