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2 years ago

Explain why Earth is not spherical in shape, but bulges at theEquator?

Physics

2 answers:

Strike441 [17]2 years ago

8 0

Explanation:

Every rotating body experiences centrifugal force. Due to this force the body tends to bulge out around it mid point and gets flattened at the poles. Same is applicable to Earth as well. Since the Earth is rotating at a very high speed, its equator gets bulged out due to centrifugal force. Because of this bulged equator, Earth's pole to pole diameter and equatorial diameter has difference of around 42.76 km. It is flatter on the poles. This also proves that Earth is not a perfect sphere.

vlada-n [284]2 years ago

8 0

Answer and Explanation:

The reason for the not being perfectly spherical ad bulging out at the equator is that The centripetal force acting toward's the earth gravitational center tries to keep the Earth in perfect spherical shape.

Also the angular momentum of the orbiting planet influences the bulge,

The greater angular momentum results in more bulge while the lower value of it results in lesser bulge and more perfect spherical shape.

Also, a greater amount of force directed towards the center and acting on the object at the equator results in the bulges at the equator whereas at poles this force is not required and hence radius is lower in that region.

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Answer:

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2 years ago

50 points !! I need help asap.......Consider a 2-kg bowling ball sits on top of a building that is 40 meters tall. It falls to t

r-ruslan [8.4K]

1) At the top of the building, the ball has more potential energy

2) When the ball is halfway through the fall, the potential energy and the kinetic energy are equal

3) Before hitting the ground, the ball has more kinetic energy

4) The potential energy at the top of the building is 784 J

5) The potential energy halfway through the fall is 392 J

6) The kinetic energy halfway through the fall is 392 J

7) The kinetic energy just before hitting the ground is 784 J

Explanation:

The potential energy of an object is given by

$PE=mgh$

where

m is the mass

g is the acceleration of gravity

h is the height relative to the ground

While the kinetic energy is given by

$KE=\frac{1}{2}mv^2$

where v is the speed of the object

When the ball is sitting on the top of the building, we have

$h=40 m$ , therefore the potential energy is not zero
$v=0$ , since the ball is at rest, therefore the kinetic energy is zero

This means that the ball has more potential energy than kinetic energy.

When the ball is halfway through the fall, the height is

$h=20 m$

So, half of its initial height. This also means that the potential energy is now half of the potential energy at the top (because potential energy is directly proportional to the height).

The total mechanical energy of the ball, which is conserved, is the sum of potential and kinetic energy:

$E=PE+KE=const.$

At the top of the building,

$E=PE_{top}$

While halfway through the fall,

$PE_{half}=\frac{PE_{top}}{2}=\frac{E}{2}$

And the mechanical energy is

$E=PE_{half} + KE_{half} = \frac{PE_{top}}{2}+KE_{half}=\frac{E}{2}+KE_{half}$

which means

$KE_{half}=\frac{E}{2}$

So, when the ball is halfway through the fall, the potential energy and the kinetic energy are equal, and they are both half of the total energy.

Just before the ball hits the ground, the situation is the following:

The height of the ball relative to the ground is now zero: $h=0$ . This means that the potential energy of the ball is zero: $PE=0$

The kinetic energy, instead, is not zero: in fact, the ball has gained speed during the fall, so $v\neq 0$ , and therefore the kinetic energy is not zero