What happens to the gravitational force on a satellite as it moves to a higher orbit?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the gravitational force on a satellite as it moves to a higher orbit?
It increases.
It decreases.
It remains constant.
It becomes zero.
The gravitational force on a satellite decreases as it moves to a higher orbit due to the inverse square law of gravitation.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the gravitational force on a satellite as it moves to a higher orbit?
Solution: The gravitational force on a satellite decreases as it moves to a higher orbit due to the inverse square law of gravitation.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand that gravity is a force that pulls objects towards each other, like the Earth and a satellite.
Step 2: Know that the strength of this gravitational force depends on the distance between the two objects.
Step 3: Learn about the inverse square law, which states that as the distance between two objects increases, the gravitational force decreases by the square of that distance.
Step 4: When a satellite moves to a higher orbit, it is farther away from the Earth.
Step 5: Because the satellite is farther away, the gravitational force acting on it becomes weaker.
Step 6: Conclude that as the satellite moves to a higher orbit, the gravitational force on it decreases.
