What happens to the gravitational force on a satellite if its altitude is double
Practice Questions
Q1
What happens to the gravitational force on a satellite if its altitude is doubled?
It doubles
It remains the same
It becomes four times weaker
It becomes eight times weaker
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What happens to the gravitational force on a satellite if its altitude is doubled?
Step 1: Understand that gravitational force depends on distance from the center of the Earth.
Step 2: Know that the formula for gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
Step 3: If the satellite is at an altitude 'h', the distance from the center of the Earth is 'R + h' (where R is the radius of the Earth).
Step 4: If the altitude is doubled, the new altitude is '2h', making the new distance 'R + 2h'.
Step 5: The new distance is greater than the original distance, which means the gravitational force will be weaker.
Step 6: Since gravitational force decreases with the square of the distance, if the distance is doubled, the force becomes weaker by a factor of four (2 squared).
