Orbital Velocity of Equatorial Satellite at 352,000 km

[cortozld]

Homework Statement

An Earth's satelite is in equatorial orbit at 352,000 km above earth. What is the orbital velocity (m/s) of the satelite (4 sig figs)

Homework Equations

g1d1^2=g2d2^2 to find gravity at the height of the satellite

The Attempt at a Solution

I don't really know what an equatorial orbit is, i tried solving it as if it was a circular orbit but that didn't work. My guess was that equatorial means it goes around Earth once per year, but no idea...

 

[mgb_phys]

Equatorial orbit just means one above the equator.
The equation you are looking for is Kepler's third law - it will give you the period of the orbit.
Then from the distance you can work out the circumference and so the speed.


hint - you are given an altitude but the orbit depends on the radius, from the centre of the earth

 

[cortozld]

so kepler's 3rd law is T1^2=R1^3
T2^2 R2^3

so T2 is the period, R1 is radius of earth, and R2 is radius of my orbit? what is T1 then?

 

[mgb_phys]

Kepler's law is T^{^2} \propto r^{^3}

You should be able to find an equation in your textbook or on wikipedia involving G and the Earth's mass

 

[cortozld]

so my equation will be T^2<br /> \propto 358370000^3? I am getting a really low answer and according to my teacher it is wrong