-- If the system is 'closed', then nothing ... including energy ... can get in or out, and the total energy inside has to be constant.
If half of the energy in the system starts out as potential energy and the rest starts out as kinetic, and then the potential energy increases, there's only one place the increase could have come from ... it could only have been converted from kinetic energy. So the <em>kinetic energy</em> in the system <em>must</em> <em>decrease</em>.
In fact, this isn't even a "result". The kinetic energy has to decrease <em><u>before</u></em> the potential energy can increase, because that's where the increase has to come from.
If the system is 'open', then energy can come in and go out. If the potential energy inside suddenly increases, we don't know where it came from, so we can't say anything about what happens to the system.
To solve this problem we will start by defining the length of the shortest stick as 'x'. And the magnitude of the longest stick, according to the statement as
Both cover a magnitude of 8.32 ft, therefore
Now solving for x we have,
Therefore the shorter stick is 2.695ft long.
Thank you for your question, what you say is true, the gravitational force exerted by the Earth on the Moon has to be equal to the centripetal force.
An interesting application of this principle is that it allows you to determine a relation between the period of an orbit and its size. Let us assume for simplicity the Moon's orbit as circular (it is not, but this is a good approximation for our purposes).
The gravitational acceleration that the Moon experience due to the gravitational attraction from the Earth is given by:
ag=G(MEarth+MMoon)/r2
Where G is the gravitational constant, M stands for mass, and r is the radius of the orbit. The centripetal acceleration is given by:
acentr=(4 pi2 r)/T2
Where T is the period. Since the two accelerations have to be equal, we obtain:
(4 pi2 r) /T2=G(MEarth+MMoon)/r2
Which implies:
r3/T2=G(MEarth+MMoon)/4 pi2=const.
This is the so-called third Kepler law, that states that the cube of the radius of the orbit is proportional to the square of the period.
This has interesting applications. In the Solar System, for example, if you know the period and the radius of one planet orbit, by knowing another planet's period you can determine its orbit radius. I hope that this answers your question.
If a man pushes on a wall with some force then according to Newton's third law, wall will also apply force on man with same magnitude but opposite in direction.
