Question

Suppose Earth orbited a star whose mass was double the mass of the sun. If the radius of Earth’s orbit remained the same as it is now, then compared with the gravitational force between Earth and the sun, the gravitational force between Earth and the star would be—
half as much
the same
two times as much
four times as much

Answer 1

Answer:

Two times as much

Explanation:

The equation for gravitational force is: Fg = GMm/r^2 with G being the universal gravitational constant.

So to make things easier we'll set r equal to 1 since it's a constant as well as G.

Then we're left with Fg=Mm with M being the mass of the sun and m being the mass of the earth.

So if m is constant and supposedly equals 1 then Fg=M so Fg is proportional to M therefore if M doubles then Fg doubles.