What is the effect of increasing the height of a satellite on its orbital speed?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the height of a satellite on its orbital speed?
Increases speed
Decreases speed
No effect
Doubles speed
Increasing the height of a satellite decreases its orbital speed, as the gravitational force acting on it decreases.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of increasing the height of a satellite on its orbital speed?
Solution: Increasing the height of a satellite decreases its orbital speed, as the gravitational force acting on it decreases.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand that a satellite orbits a planet due to gravity.
Step 2: Recognize that the gravitational force decreases as the satellite moves higher from the planet's surface.
Step 3: Realize that the orbital speed is the speed needed to stay in orbit without falling back to the planet.
Step 4: Know that if the gravitational force is weaker (because the satellite is higher), the satellite does not need to move as fast to stay in orbit.
Step 5: Conclude that increasing the height of the satellite results in a decrease in its orbital speed.
