The diagram below models Mercury and Venus orbiting the Sun. What force causes Venus to travel along a curved path instead of moving in a straight line as indicated by the dashed line in the diagram?
A. Electromagnetic attraction between the Sun and Venus.
B. Gravitational attraction between the Sun and Venus.
C. Electromagnetic attraction between Mercury and Venus.
D. Gravitational attraction between Mercury and Venus.
B. Gravitational attraction between the Sun and Venus.
The correct option is B. Gravitational attraction between the Sun and Venus. The force responsible for causing Venus to travel along a curved path is the gravitational attraction between the Sun and Venus. This force is responsible for keeping planets in orbit around the Sun and causes them to move in curved paths rather than straight lines.
The force that causes Venus to travel along a curved path instead of moving in a straight line is the gravitational attraction between the Sun and Venus (option B). Gravitational attraction is the force of attraction between two objects due to their masses. In this scenario, the Sun's gravity pulls Venus towards it, causing Venus to orbit around the Sun.
To determine the answer, you can consider the known laws of physics. Newton's law of universal gravitation states that every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. The Sun has a much larger mass than Venus, so the gravitational force exerted by the Sun on Venus is stronger than the force exerted by Venus on the Sun.
Electromagnetic attraction between the Sun and Venus (option A) does exist, but its effect is negligible compared to gravitational attraction in this context. Electromagnetic attraction between Mercury and Venus (option C) and gravitational attraction between Mercury and Venus (option D) are not relevant to the motion of Venus in relation to the Sun in this specific question. Therefore, the correct answer is B.