Two 2.6 kg physical science textbooks on a bookshelf are spaced 0.22 m apart.
What is the magnitude of the gravitational attraction between the books?
To find the magnitude of the gravitational attraction between the books, you can use Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, which states that the force of gravitational attraction between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
The formula to calculate the gravitational force is:
F = (G * m1 * m2) / r^2
where F is the gravitational force, G is the gravitational constant (approximately 6.67430 x 10^-11 N m^2/kg^2), m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects, and r is the distance between their centers of mass.
In this case, the masses of the textbooks are given as 2.6 kg each, and the distance between them is 0.22 m.
Plugging the values into the formula, we get:
F = (6.67430 x 10^-11 N m^2/kg^2) * (2.6 kg) * (2.6 kg) / (0.22 m)^2
Simplifying the equation:
F = (6.67430 x 10^-11 N m^2/kg^2) * (2.6 kg)^2 / (0.22 m)^2
Calculating this gives us the magnitude of the gravitational attraction between the books.