Earth's Acceleration Toward the Sun

[boblolo123]

The Earth is 1.50 × 1011 m from the sun. The earth’'s mass is 5.98 × 1024 kg, while the mass of the sun is 1.99 × 1030 kg.
What is Earth's acceleration toward the sun?
I'm really clueless how do this at all? I'm assuming it involves f=ma and GMm/r^2 formulas, but I really don't know. Help please...

 

[lekh2003]

Ok, the force of gravity is: the constant of gravity multiplied by the product of the masses divided by the square of the distance. You can calculate the force easily.

You need to find the acceleration of the Earth. You know the force on Earth. You know the mass of the Earth. What is the acceleration of the Earth.

 

[anorlunda]

You have the curiosity and a great opportunity to learn. I suggest starting here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_mechanics

You can use the formulas and tips in the article to make estimates about Earth and the Sun. Let us know how it worked for you.

 

[PeterDonis]

Moderator's note: moved to homework forum since this is a homework-type problem.

@boblolo123 you have the right formulas. You also have all the right quantities in your OP to fill into the formulas in order to find the unknown, which is $a$. It's just a matter of plugging in the numbers.

 

[Mark44]

The Earth is 1.50 × 1011 m from the sun.

To indicate 10 to some power, a caret ^ is often used.
The above would be 1.50 x 10^11 m.

The earth’'s mass is 5.98 × 1024 kg

Similar here. 5.98 x 10^24 kg.

 

[sophiecentaur]

To indicate 10 to some power, a caret ^ is often used.

Better still, the bar above the edit window has x₂ and x² options ready made for you.
This_is dead^easy