In a physics class expirement, students are investigating the gravitational force between a planet and its moon. They want to identify the facotrs that influence this gravitational attraction in a real-world scenario. Which TWO factors affect the gravitational attraction between the planet and its moon?
A. the masses of the planet and the moon
B. the weights of the planet and the moon
C. the distance between the planet and the moon
D. the speed of the moon's orbit around the planet
A. the masses of the planet and the moon
C. the distance between the planet and the moon
why?
The gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Therefore, the masses of both the planet and its moon play a significant role in determining the gravitational attraction between them.
Additionally, the distance between the planet and its moon is also a crucial factor as the gravitational force decreases as the distance between the objects increases. This means that the closer the moon is to the planet, the stronger the gravitational attraction will be.
Factors like the weights of the objects and the speed of the moon's orbit around the planet do not directly affect the gravitational attraction between them.