Fundamentals of Physics Extended (10th Edition)

Published by Wiley
ISBN 10: 1-11823-072-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-11823-072-5

Chapter 13 - Gravitation - Problems - Page 380: 26a

Answer

At a distance of $~~\frac{R}{3}~~$ from the center of the sphere, the gravitational acceleration is $\frac{a_g}{3}$

Work Step by Step

We can find the volume of a sphere at a distance $r$ from the center of the sphere. $V_r = \frac{4}{3}\pi~r^3$ We can assume that $r \leq R$. We can express $V_r$ as a fraction of the original volume $V_R$: $\frac{V_r}{V_R} = \frac{\frac{4}{3}\pi~r^3}{\frac{4}{3}\pi~R^3} = \frac{r^3}{R^3}$ We can find an expression for the mass of the sphere with a radius $r$: $M_r = \frac{M~r^3}{R^3}$ Note that $~~a_g = \frac{GM}{R^2}$ We can find $r$ such that the gravitational acceleration is $\frac{a_g}{3}$: $\frac{GM_r}{r^2} = \frac{a_g}{3}$ $\frac{G~ (\frac{M~r^3}{R^3})}{r^2} = \frac{1}{3}\cdot \frac{GM}{R^2}$ $\frac{G~ M~r^3}{R^3~r^2} = \frac{1}{3}\cdot \frac{GM}{R^2}$ $r = \frac{R}{3}$ At a distance of $~~\frac{R}{3}~~$ from the center of the sphere, the gravitational acceleration is $\frac{a_g}{3}$
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