Potential Energy EX 9
Revision as of 17:16, 15 August 2011 by imported>Patrick
Since the radius of the orbit is , we have to use the general formula for the change in gravitational potential energy of the system satellite-Earth. The initial distance between the satellite and the Earth is equal to the radius of the Earth, or . When the satellite orbits at the altitude , the final distance between the Earth and the satellite becomes . Now we can compute the change in gravitational potential energy:
Since and , we substitute for and and write