The radius of Earth is and the acceleration due to gravity at the surface is
PHYSICS · Multi-part · A Level · Physics · Fields and their consequences · Fields and their consequences
Problem
The radius of Earth is 6.4×106m and the acceleration due to gravity at the surface is 9.8ms−2. Ignore air resistance.
(i) Calculate the speed required for a satellite to move in a circular orbit just above Earth’s surface.
(ii) Determine the minimum speed that a body must be projected with from the surface so that it can escape Earth’s gravitational pull.
(iii) Verify whether the ratio of the two speeds obtained above is equal to 2 and comment on your result.