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4 years ago

Why do planets not travel in a straight path?

Physics

1 answer:

Elis [28]4 years ago

6 0

Answer:

Because the gravitational attraction of the Sun hold them in motion around it

Explanation:

For an object travelling in a straight path at constant velocity, the net force acting on the object must be zero.

The planets in the Solar System, however, do not experience a zero net force: in fact, the Sun exerts a gravitational attraction on them, whose magnitude is given by

$F=G\frac{Mm}{r^2}$

where

G is the gravitational constant

M is the mass of the Sun

m is the mass of the planet

r is the average distance between the Sun and the planet

Due to the presence of this force, the Sun makes the planets 'deviating' from their straight path, forcing them to following an elliptical path around the Sun.

You might be interested in

Which of Newton's laws best explains why

zheka24 [161]

I am thinking about the law of gravitation

7 0

3 years ago

A binary star system consists of two stars of masses m1 and m2. The stars, which gravitationally attract each other, revolve aro

mote1985 [20]

Answer: $a_{2}=\frac{m_{1}}{m_{2}} a_{1}$

Explanation:

The rest of the question is below:

Find a2, the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration of the star with mass m2.

Assuming both stars are describing a uniform circular motion, their acceleration vector is directed towards the center of mass of the system (that's why it's called centripetal acceleration).

Now, according to Newton's 2nd law, the force $F$ is directly proportional and in the same direction as the acceleration.

For $m_{1}$ :

$F_{1}=m_{1}a_{1}$

For $m_{2}$ :

$F_{2}=m_{2}a_{2}$

If the centripetal force is the same for both stars:

$F_{1}=F_{2}$

$m_{1}a_{1}=m_{2}a_{2}$

Isolating $a_{2}$ :

$a_{2}=\frac{m_{1}}{m_{2}} a_{1}$

8 0

3 years ago

When light travels from one medium to another with a different index of refraction, how is the light's frequency and wavelength

lbvjy [14]

Answer:

The frequency does not change, but the wavelength does

Explanation:

Here are the options

A. When a light wave travels from a medium with a lower index of refraction to a medium with a higher index of refraction, the frequency changes and the wavelength does not.

B. The frequency does change, but the wavelength remains unchanged.

C. Both the frequency and wavelength change.

D. When a light wave travels from a medium with a lower index of refraction to a medium with a higher index of refraction, neither the wavelength nor the frequency changes.

E. The frequency does not change, but its wavelength does.

When light goes through one medium to the next, the frequency doesn't really change seeing as frequency is dependent on wavelength and light wave velocity. And when the wavelength shifts from one medium to the next.

$n= \frac{C}{V} \ and\ \frac{\lambda_o}{\lambda_m}$