Potential Energy EX 9

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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