In this problem you will measure the gravitational constant in a series of “observational experiments,” making use of Newton’s law of gravitation and second law of motion as well as Kepler’s third law of planetary motion a)Newton measured the centripetal acceleration of the moon in its orbit around Earth by comparing the force Earth exerts on the moon with the force Earth exerts on an apple. He obtained a value of ac = 2.66×10-3 m/s2. If Newton had taken the mass of Earth to be ME = 5.95×1024 kg and the mean distance between the centers of Earth and the moon to be RME = 3.86×108 m, what value would he have obtained for the gravitational constant, in units of N⋅m2/kg2? b)Since measuring the centripetal acceleration of an orbiting body is rather difficult, an alternative approach is to use the body’s rotational period instead. Enter an expression for the gravitational constant, in terms of the distance between Earth and the moon, RME, Earth’s mass,ME, and the moon’s period of rotation around Earth, T. c)Using the expression you entered in part (b) and taking the rotational period of the moon to be T = 27.1 days, what value would Newton have calculated for the gravitation constant, in units of N⋅m2/kg2? Take ME = 5.95×1024 kg and RME = 3.86×108 m.
In this problem you will measure the gravitational constant in a series of “observational experiments,” making use of Newton’s law of gravitation and second law of motion as well as Kepler’s third law of planetary motion
a)Newton measured the centripetal acceleration of the moon in its orbit around Earth by comparing the force Earth exerts on the moon with the force Earth exerts on an apple. He obtained a value of ac = 2.66×10-3 m/s2. If Newton had taken the mass of Earth to be ME = 5.95×1024 kg and the mean distance between the centers of Earth and the moon to be RME = 3.86×108 m, what value would he have obtained for the gravitational constant, in units of N⋅m2/kg2?
b)Since measuring the centripetal acceleration of an orbiting body is rather difficult, an alternative approach is to use the body’s rotational period instead. Enter an expression for the gravitational constant, in terms of the distance between Earth and the moon, RME, Earth’s mass,ME, and the moon’s period of rotation around Earth, T.
c)Using the expression you entered in part (b) and taking the rotational period of the moon to be T = 27.1 days, what value would Newton have calculated for the gravitation constant, in units of N⋅m2/kg2? Take ME = 5.95×1024 kg and RME = 3.86×108 m.
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