Posted by Lindsay on Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 10:45am.
The "in space" part means there are no other objects around exerting forces on any of the spheres. I assume you know how to calculate the gravitational force between two bodies, with masses M1 and M2, using the Newtonian equation
F = G M1*M2/R^2
where 6.67 × 10^−11 N m2 kg-2 is the universal constant of gravity.
In this case, object 1 is pulled one way by object 2 and pulled other way by object 2. Compute the two forces and take the difference.
change that to "and pulled other way by object 3".
The īn space"means that the total gravitation effect is dependent on the spheres only.
Do this as vectors. Gravity is a vector, so the net force (to the right) is
Fnet= G*M1 ( - ml/.1060^2 + mr/.2070^2)
where M1 is 2.43kg, ml is 5.17kg, mr is 6.20 kg)
I tried both of the ways and got the same answer. However, the answer I got using bobpursley's equation got me -5.11E-8, when it was really positive. Was there an error in that equation, or did I just mess up with the math somewhere along the way?
Positive means the force is to the right, but looking at the numbers, it should be to the left (negative).
Yes, it is negative, I just put the numbers in the Google calculator, and it is definitely negative (to the left).
Oh ok I see. Well, my online homework site would only accept it as postive, but it has been known to make errors before.
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