Question

What is the centripetal acceleration of the earth as it travels around the sun when Earth has an orbital radius of 1.5 x 10^11 m and an average orbital speed of 29.7 km/s

Answer 1

Answer: $0.0058 m/s^{2}$

Explanation:

Centripetal acceleration $a_{C}$ is calculated by the following equation:

$a_{C}=\frac{V^{2}}{r}$

Where:

$V=29.7 \frac{km}{h} \frac{1000 m}{1 km}=29700 m/s$ is the Earth's orbital speed

$r=1.5(10)^{11} m$ is the orbital radius

$a_{C}=\frac{(29700 m/s)^{2}}{1.5(10)^{11} m}$

$a_{C}=0.0058 m/s^{2}$