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Stevemotto
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Member advised to use the homework template for posts in the homework sections of PF.
Question: A Gak it a type of alien that lives on a planet in another galaxy. One day a Gak decides to find out a little more about his planet. He drops a ball (it starts at rest) with a mass of 6.18 kg and notes that it takes 0.928 s to fall a distance of 8.37 m.
The Gak’s planet orbits its sun in a roughly circular orbit. The average distance to the Gak’s sun is 6.85 × 10^8 km. The Gak measures the force of attraction between his planet and his Sun and finds that this is 2.89 × 10^20 N.
How long is a year on the Gak’s planet?My Attempt:
So I started with the formula T^2 = 4(pi^2)(R^3)/GM
R = 6.85*10^8 (from avg distance)
Since on a previous question I found the mass of Gak's planet to be M = 2.12*10^24 (and got it right). Subbing it in & all relevant variables;
So; T^2 = 4(pi^2)(6.85*10^11)^3/(6.67*10^-11)(2.12*10^24)
T = 2.9956*10^11
Then multiply this by 1/(60*60*24*365) for Earth Years, I get;
T = 9499 yrs
And this is apparently wrong...
Can someone tell me what I did wrong? I'm starting to suspect that R didn't include the radius of the planets and I might need to add it in... I've attached the quiz for reference.
The Gak’s planet orbits its sun in a roughly circular orbit. The average distance to the Gak’s sun is 6.85 × 10^8 km. The Gak measures the force of attraction between his planet and his Sun and finds that this is 2.89 × 10^20 N.
How long is a year on the Gak’s planet?My Attempt:
So I started with the formula T^2 = 4(pi^2)(R^3)/GM
R = 6.85*10^8 (from avg distance)
Since on a previous question I found the mass of Gak's planet to be M = 2.12*10^24 (and got it right). Subbing it in & all relevant variables;
So; T^2 = 4(pi^2)(6.85*10^11)^3/(6.67*10^-11)(2.12*10^24)
T = 2.9956*10^11
Then multiply this by 1/(60*60*24*365) for Earth Years, I get;
T = 9499 yrs
And this is apparently wrong...
Can someone tell me what I did wrong? I'm starting to suspect that R didn't include the radius of the planets and I might need to add it in... I've attached the quiz for reference.