Chapter 3, Problem 37R

To determine

The body that exerts the strongest gravitational force on a person.

Answer to Problem 37R

The earth exerts the strongest gravitational force on the person and the correct option is option (B).

Explanation of Solution

Introduction:

The mathematical expression to calculate the gravitational force between two object is as follows.

  $F_G=G\frac{m_1{m}_2}{r^2}$

Here,

• $G$ is gravitational constant.
• $m_1$ is mass of the first object.
• $m_2$ is mass of the second object.
• $r$ is distance between the masses.

From the above expression, it is clear that the gravitational force directly depends on the mass of objects and inversely depends on the separation between the objects.

The mass of earth is about $5.97\times {10}^{24}\text{kg}$ and its radius is around $6400\text{km}$ , the mass of sun is about $1.98\times {10}^{30}\text{kg}$ and its distance with earth is around $151.91\times {10}^6\text{km}$ ; and the mass of moon is about $7.34\times {10}^{22}\text{kg}$ and its distance from earth is around $384400\text{km}$ . The mass of book is very less among all.

Using this data, we find the effective value of strongest gravitational force is for earth.

Conclusion:

Therefore, the earth exerts the strongest gravitational force on a person.