Homework Help: Physics

Posted by Sarah on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 12:58am.

how many kilometers would you have to go above the surface of the earth for your weight to decrease to half of what it was at the surface?

I know that the mass of earth is 5.97 x 10^24 kg do i have to convert it to km ??

Physics - drwls, Monday, June 15, 2009 at 6:31am
The weight force will be decreased by 2 when the distance from the center of the earth is increased by a factor sqrt2 = 1.141

The height you will have to rise above the surface will be

H = (sqrt2 - 1)* Rearth

Rearth = 6371 km

Solve for H
Physics - Sarah, Monday, June 15, 2009 at 11:52am
for this one i got 1.414 for the sqrt of 2 so i did (1.414 - 1)* 6371 km and got 2638.95 km is this correct
Physics - drwls, Monday, June 15, 2009 at 12:48pm
Yes, but just round it off to the nearest km. Using the accurate square root of 2, I get 2639 km

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