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Gravitation

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Question : 13 of 25
Marks: +1, -0
How will you ‘weigh the sun’, that is estimate its mass? The mean orbital radius of the earth around the sun is 1.5×1081.5 \times 10^{8} km.
Solution:  
The gravitational force acting on Earth due to Sun is F=GMSMEr2,rF = \frac{G M_{S} M_{E}}{r^{2}}, r \rightarrow mean orbital radius of the earth around the sun.
Now, the centripetal force acting on the earth due to the Sun is
Fc=MErω2=MEr4π2T2,ωF_{c} = M_{E} r \omega^{2} = M_{E} r \frac{4 \pi^{2}}{T^{2}}, \omega \rightarrow angular velocity
Since, this centripetal force is provided by the gravitational pull of the Sun on the Earth, so,
r=1.5×108 km\because r = 1.5 \times 10^{8} \text{ km}
=1.5×1011 m,= 1.5 \times 10^{11} \text{ m},
T=365 daysT = 365 \text{ days}
=365×24×60×60 s= 365 \times 24 \times 60 \times 60 \text{ s}
MS=4×(3.14)2×(1.5×1011)3(6.67×1011)×(365×24×60×60)2\therefore M_{S} = \frac{4 \times (3.14)^{2} \times (1.5 \times 10^{11})^{3}}{(6.67 \times 10^{-11}) \times (365 \times 24 \times 60 \times 60)^{2}}
2×1030 kg.\simeq 2 \times 10^{30} \text{ kg}.
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