Friday 6 December 2019

physical constants - Do we take gravity = 9.8 m/s² for all heights when solving problems? Why or why not?


Do we take gravity = 9.8 m/s² for all heights when solving problems?



Answer




No, the value $9.8\frac{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{s}^2}$ is an approximation that is only valid at or near the Earth's surface. You can go a few miles up or down and it'll still be good enough, but once you get any significant distance away from the surface of Earth, you would need to use a different value for gravitational acceleration. You can calculate the value from Newton's law of gravitation, $F = Gm_1m_2/r^2$, and you'll get


$$g = \frac{GM}{r^2} = \frac{3.99\times 10^{14}\ \mathrm{m^3/s^2}}{r^2}$$


where $M$ is the mass of the Earth and $r$ is the distance from the Earth's center to the point for which you are doing the calculation.


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