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You plan to take a trip to the moon. Since you do not have a traditional spaceship with rockets, you will need to leave the earth with enough speed to make it to the moon. Some information that will help during this problem:mearth = 5.9742 x 1024 kgrearth = 6.3781 x 106 mmmoon = 7.36 x 1022 kgrmoon = 1.7374 x 106 mdearth to moon = 3.844 x 108 m (center to center)G = 6.67428 x 10-11 N-m2/kg2On your first attempt you leave the surface of the earth at v = 5534 m/s. How far from the center of the earth will you get?

Answer :

The spaceship reaches a height [tex]8.3781\times10^6m[/tex] from the center of the earth.

Conservation of Energy:

Since the gravitational force is a conservative force, the concept of conservation of energy will help in calculating the distance.

At the highest point, the velocity of the spaceship will be zero so the kinetic energy plus potential energy at the ground of the spaceship will be converted totally into gravitational potential energy.

Let the highest point be at a distance h from the surface of the earth and the mass of spaceship be m, let R be the radius of the earth, then:

[tex]\frac{1}{2}mv^2-\frac{Gm_{earth}m}{R}=-\frac{Gm_{earth}m}{R+h} \\\\\frac{1}{2}mv^2=\frac{Gm_{earth}m}{R}-\frac{Gm_{earth}m}{R+h} \\\\\frac{1}{2}mv^2=Gm_{earth}m}[\frac{1}{R} -\frac{1}{R+h} ]\\\\\frac{1}{2}mv^2=Gm_{earth}m}[\frac{h}{R(R+h)} ] \\\\\frac{R(R+h)}{h}=\frac{2Gm_{earth}}{v^2}\\\\\frac{R^2}{h}+R=\frac{2\times6.67428\times10^{-11}\times5.9742\times10^{24}}{5534^2}=26\times10^6m\\\\\frac{R^2}{h}=(26-6.3781)\times10^6m\\\\h=\frac{(6.3781)^2\times10^{12}}{19.62\times10^6}\\\\h=2.073\times10^6m[/tex]

So the distance from the center will be:

d = R+h

[tex]d = 8.3781\times10^6m[/tex]

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