Physics Technology Update (4th Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0-32190-308-0
ISBN 13: 978-0-32190-308-2

Chapter 12 - Gravity - Problems and Conceptual Exercises - Page 412: 68

Answer

The net force on the Moon points toward the Sun.

Work Step by Step

We know that the force on the Moon by the Sun is given as $F_{M.S}=G\frac{M_M \space M_S}{R_{M.S}^2}$ We plug in the known values to obtain: $F_{M.S}=6.67\times 10^{-11}\times \frac{7.35\times 10^{22}(2.0\times 10^{30})}{(1.50\times 10^{11})^2}$ $F_{M.S}=4.35\times 10^{20}N$ The force on the Moon by the Earth is given as $F_{M.E}=G\frac{M_M \space M_E}{R_{M.E}^2}$ We plug in the known values to obtain: $F_{M.S}=6.67\times 10^{-11}\times \frac{7.35\times 10^{22}(5.97\times 10^{24})}{(3.84\times 10^{8})^2}$ $F_{M.S}=1.98\times 10^{20}N$ We can see that the Sun exerts more force on the Moon as compared to the Earth and thus the net force on the Moon points toward the Sun.
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