What is the effect of increasing the mass of a satellite on its orbital speed?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the mass of a satellite on its orbital speed?
Increases the orbital speed
Decreases the orbital speed
No effect on orbital speed
Depends on the altitude
The orbital speed of a satellite depends on the mass of the Earth and the radius of the orbit, but not on the mass of the satellite itself. Therefore, increasing the mass of the satellite has no effect on its orbital speed.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of increasing the mass of a satellite on its orbital speed?
Solution: The orbital speed of a satellite depends on the mass of the Earth and the radius of the orbit, but not on the mass of the satellite itself. Therefore, increasing the mass of the satellite has no effect on its orbital speed.
Steps: 4
Step 1: Understand what orbital speed means. Orbital speed is how fast a satellite moves around a planet.
Step 2: Identify the factors that affect orbital speed. The main factors are the mass of the planet (like Earth) and the distance from the planet (the radius of the orbit).
Step 3: Recognize that the mass of the satellite itself does not affect its orbital speed. This means whether the satellite is heavy or light, it will still move at the same speed if it's at the same distance from the planet.
Step 4: Conclude that increasing the mass of the satellite will not change how fast it orbits the planet.
