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On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.
If John Glenn weighed 640 N on Earth's surface,

a) how much would he
have weighed if his Mercury spacecraft had (hypothetically) remained
at twice the distance from the center of Earth?

b) Why is it said that an
astronaut is never truly "weightless?"

Respuesta :

mickymike92

a. John Glenn would have weighed 160 N if his Mercury spacecraft had (hypothetically) remained at twice the distance from the center of Earth

b. An astronaut is never truly weightless because the earth still exerts a gravitational pull on the astronaut since the spaceships are not at an infinite distance from the earth who in space is actually experiencing free fall due to gravity.

From Newton's law of Universal gravitation:

  • F = Gm₁m₂/d²
  • Where F is the gravitational force acting on two objects of masses m₁ and m₂ respectively.
  • d is the distance of separation between the two objects.
  • G is the Universal gravitational constant

From the question, the distance between the spacecraft and the center of the earth is twice the distance on the earth's surface.

All other values remained constant, therefore, only the change in distance will affect the force.

Weight or force of gravity on John on the earth's surface is given as:

  • F = 640 N

The equation for calculating the new force or weight, Fₓ will simply be;

  • Fₓ = F/d²

since d = 2

Fₓ = 640 / 2²

Fₓ = 160 N

Therefore, John Glenn would have weighed 160 N if his Mercury spacecraft had (hypothetically) remained at twice the distance from the center of Earth.

b. The spacecraft carrying astronauts orbit the earth at very high speeds. So astronauts even though experiencing free fall due to the gravitational force of the earth, never really fall onto the  earth's surface.  

An astronaut is never truly weightless because the earth still exerts a gravitational pull on the astronaut since the spaceships are not at an infinite distance from the earth who in space are actually experiencing free fall due to gravity.

Learn more about gravity and weightlessness at: https://brainly.com/question/3135058

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