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Master Wayne
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Is a helicopter which is stationary relative to the surface on a geostationary orbit? Why, or why not?
Drakkith said:No, it is not in an orbit at all. An orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body.
Master Wayne said:But if it stays still on the air for a whole day, it's trajectory will be a circle around, and slightly above, the surface of the earth. I can't see the difference from a geostationary satellite.
Drakkith said:The difference is that a satellite is in free fall in its orbit around the Earth. A helicopter is not. As an example, let's replace the helicopter with a blimp floating stationary in the air. The air is a fluid, just like water, so a blimp hovering in the air is similar to a submarine underwater. Neither are in free fall under the influence of gravity, so neither are in an orbit.
Edit: Note that there is no real difference for this discussion whether our helicopter/blimp/sub is in the air or underwater. The surface of the Earth is an arbitrary choice for deciding what a satellite is orbiting around. Just think of Jupiter or other gas giants which have no solid surface.
Master Wayne said:But now look at it this way. What is the centripetal force which keeps the satellite on a circular trajectory around the planet? Its weight.
And what is the centripetal force which keeps the helicopter on a circular trajectory around the planet? Also its weight.
The aerodynamic forces (or hydrodynamic, for that matter) which keep the helicopter (or submarine) suspended are not exactly equal in magnitude to its weight. There's a little weight "left", and that acts as the centripetal force.
So when you look at it, both the satellite and the helicopter are spinning around the planet in a circle due to their weight. The fact that there are other forces acting on the helicopter doesn't really matter, as I see it.
Drakkith said:All of which is irrelevant since an orbit is the path due solely to gravity. The fact that there are other forces acting on the helicopter is the exact reason that it isn't in orbit.
Drakkith said:That is incorrect. If the weight of an object is not countered exactly by something such as lift then the object will accelerate downward and fall.
Master Wayne said:If the weight of the object is countered exactly by something such as lift, then the net force on that object is zero. If the net force is zero, then how come the object is traveling in a circle?
Drakkith said:That's a good question. I actually can't answer it at the moment.
Master Wayne said:Alright, now I got it. It all comes down to the definition of orbit.
If the weight of the object is countered exactly by something such as lift, then the net force on that object is zero. If the net force is zero, then how come the object is traveling in a circle?
If you are sitting in a chair in a room for a whole day, then you will have traveled a full circle after 24 hours. There must be a net force on you for you to do that. The way I have always seen it is that the chair's force on you is slightly smaller than your weight, leaving a small net force pointing towards the center of the planet. Same would go for the helicopter. Don't you agree?
abitslow said:You probably should start a new thread. Posting a series of questions makes it difficult to see what you do and do not understand. How fast are YOU traveling right now? If you answered ANYTHING except "Relative to what?" then you fail physics. You don't "get it". Relative to the CMB radiation? Relative to the center of mass of the Virgo Supercluster? Relative to the path of the Local Cluster? Relative to Sagittarius A*? Relative to the Sun? Relative to the Earth's center? Relative to The Surface of the Earth? You are spinning. Your motion around the center of the Earth depends on your latitude, but is thousands of miles per hour, and I know you know this. Centripetal and centrifugal force are created in a non-inertial rest frame. That is, they exist relative to the surface of the Earth (which is also spinning). OK, too advanced for you I think... you seem to think that the method used to suspend you at a certain height matters. Think about it. Whether it is the ground supporting you, or a rocket engine, or whirling blades lifting air, you are being supported. You have angular momentum. You will tend to follow the surface of the Earth around not just because of friction, but because angular momentum is conserved. It could be that someday you will get into space and experience microgravity (aka weightlessness) first hand. Perhaps if you've learned the physics, you will understand that right now (if your are sitting down) you can feel the force of gravity (which is actually the chair pushing you up) and that being in a gravitational field does not make you feel weight. Unless that gravity is counteracted, you are weightless. So, don't blame gravity for your weight; blame the electromagnetic repulsion (and pauli exclusion) for preventing you from doing what comes naturally (falling to the center of the Earth). There are two (actually at least three) Conservation Laws you must consider Linear Momentum is conserved and Angular Momentum is conserved. It gets a bit more complicated once tidal forces need to be considered, but that's too advanced a subject for now.
Your motion (or lack of it, relative to the surface of the Earth) is quite accurately explained just by considering the conservation of momentum (for you).
It's a small difference. The net force on an object on the surface of the Earth is a tiny centripetal force, except at the north or south pole where the net force is zero and the object rotates but does not accelerate towards the center of the earth. At the equator, centripetal acceleration is about 0.03392 m / s^2.Master Wayne said:However, the question being asked here is really pretty simple: due to the rotation of the Earth, objects lying still on the planet's surface are always describing curved trajectories. For an object to describe a curved trajectory, the net force on it must be different from zero. What force is acting on all of these objects to cause them to move like this? I'm suggesting it's their weight, which is not exactly balanced by ... (upwards force from the Earth's surface)
Master Wayne said:If the weight of the object is countered exactly by something such as lift, then the net force on that object is zero. If the net force is zero, then how come the object is traveling in a circle?
paisiello2 said:I think you and the ground experience the same centripetal acceleration, not the same centripetal force since that depends on the relative masses of yourself and the ground.
Otherwise I think you have it right.
Is this because any object in "orbit" and only affected by gravity must be in a plane that passes through the center of the earth? And therefore the only true geostationary satellites must be at the equator?FactChecker said:For a helicopter to stay in geostationary position in the northern hemisphere, it must do more than provide lift to cancel the gravitational force, it must continually correct toward the North.
paisiello2 said:Is this because any object in "orbit" and only affected by gravity must be in a plane that passes through the center of the earth? And therefore the only true geostationary satellites must be at the equator?
FactChecker said:Yes. And any plain through the center of the Earth that is tilted away from the plain through the equator would make an orbit that varies North and South.
SteamKing said:I think you mean 'plane' instead of 'plain'.
... does not accelerate towards the center of the earth.rcgldr said:... except at the north or south pole where the net force is zero and the object rotates but does not accelerate towards the center of the earth.
No, and neither would an accelerometer in a hovering helicopter, so neither one is "in orbit".OCR said:If the "object" happened to be an accelerometer, then... would it read zero at the north or south pole?
No, they don't always act along the same line. The gravitational force is not perpendicular to the surface (except at the poles and equator). The rest of your argument is based on this misconception.fandi.bataineh said:when youre setting on your chair; your weight pulls you down, and the normal force exerted on you by the chair pushes you up, which means that; these two forces share a common line of action (in opposite directions)...,
A.T. said:No, they don't always act along the same line. The gravitational force is not perpendicular to the surface (except at the poles and equator). The rest of your argument is based on this misconception.
No matter how you decompose them into components, the vector sum of gravity and chair force on you is not zero. If it was, you would move in a straight line in the inertial frame, but you move in a circle.FactChecker said:The force from the chair includes a static friction force that opposes any component of gravity or centripetal force that is tangent to the Earth's surface. The result is that the chair does exert a force exactly opposite to all other lateral forces on your body.
A.T. said:So no, the component of gravity tangent to the surface is not canceled by static friction. And neither is the component of gravity normal to the surface completely canceled by the normal force. These unbalanced components provide together the centripetal force to keep you on a circular trajectory.
No, the component of gravity tangent to the surface is not exactly canceled by static friction.FactChecker said:The reason a person does not slide laterally is that the static friction exactly cancels any lateral force.