One last time: how would you explain to your young, native friends who declare t

Question

One last time: how would you explain to your young, native friends who declare that" all those statellites orbiting the earth don't fall back to the ground because they are too far from the earth for the gravity to pull them back down " that the "no gravity" explaintion for orbital motion can not be correct? One last time: how would you explain to your young, native friends who declare that" all those statellites orbiting the earth don't fall back to the ground because they are too far from the earth for the gravity to pull them back down " that the "no gravity" explaintion for orbital motion can not be correct?

Explanation / Answer

Of course there is gravitational force acting, and it's trying it's best to pull the satellite and make it crash on earth. But at the same time, the satellite is revolving around the earth at great speeds. That speed causes a pseudo force - Centrifugal force to act on the satellite. This force wants the satellite to fly off into the space. However, Gravitational force and Centrifugal force cancel each other and the satellite stays in place.

Consider another example. - Tie a stone to a string and whirl it in a circle. You will feel a force by the string. The stone will also feel the same tension force. But still the stone is not flying back to your hand even if a tension force is acting on it. Here also, the tension force gets balanced by the centrifugal force and stone continues to rotate in the circle.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse O
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.