Gravitational and Electric Fields Flashcards
What is a force field?
A region where an object experiences a non-contact force.
What is a gravitational field?
The region of space surrounding a body in which another body experiences a force of gravitational attraction.
What is Newton’s law of gravitation?
It shows that the magnitude of the gravitational force between two masses is directly proportional to the product of the two masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
What is gravitational field strength?
The force per unit mass exerted by a gravitational field on an object.
What is the difference between a radial field and a uniform field?
Uniform field - Force is the same everywhere in the field
Radial field - Force is exerted depending on the position of the object in the field.
What is gravitational Potential?
The work done per unit mass when moving an object from infinity to that point in the gravitational field.
What is gravitational potential difference?
Energy needed to move a unit mass between two points.
What is an equipotential surface?
An equipotential surface is the contact points in space having the same potential on the surface.
What is Kepler’s third law?
It is that the square if the orbital period (T) is directly proportional to the cube of the radius (r)
What is escape velocity?
It is the minimum velocity it must travel at, in order to escape the gravitational field at the surface of a mass. This is the velocity at which the object’s the kinetic energy is equal to the magnitude of its gravitational potential energy.
What is a synchronous orbit?
An orbit where the orbital period of the satellite is equal ton the rotational period of the object that it is orbiting.
What is a geostationary satellite?
A satellite which follow a specific geosynchronous orbit, meaning their orbital period is 24 hours and they always stay above the same point on the earth, because they orbit directly above the equator.
What are the uses for geostationary satellites?
TV and telephone signals as they will always stay above the same point on the earth so you don’t have to alter the plane of an aerial or transmitter.
What is a low-orbit satellite?
A satellite with a significantly lower orbits in comparison to geostationary satellites, therefore they travel much faster meaning their orbital periods are much smaller. Because of this, these satellites require less powerful transmitters and can be potentially orbit across the entire earth’s surface. This makes them useful for monitoring the weather, making scientific observations about places which are unreachable and military applications.
What is Coulomb’s Law?
The magnitude of the force between two charges in a vacuum is directly proportional to the product of the charges, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges.
