Gravitational Fields Flashcards
What is the law of gravitation?
The force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
What the gravitational field strength acting on an object depend on?
The mass of the object causing the gravitational field and the distance between the two objects.
What is Kepler’s Law of Ellipses?
A body moving in a gravitational field must move either in a circle, ellipse or a hyperbola.
What is an aphelion?
A planet’s furthest point from the sun.
What is a perihelion?
A planet’s closest point to the sun.
What is Kepler’s Law of Equal Areas?
A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal periods of time.
What is Kepler’s Law of Harmonies? (3rd Law)
The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of its average distance from the sun.
What are some common uses of satellites?
Communications, military uses, scientific research, weather and climate, and GPS.
What is special about geostationary satellites?
They have an orbital period of 24 hours, so they appear to stay in the same place in the sky.
What causes gravitational fields?
Objects having mass.
