What Determines the Escape Speed from Earth's Gravitational Pull?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of escape speed from Earth's gravitational pull, focusing on the energy conservation principles involved when a particle is projected from the Earth's surface. Participants are examining the relationship between kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy in this context.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants are exploring the implications of negative kinetic energy and its physical significance. Questions arise regarding the conditions under which the total energy can be negative and how this affects the escape velocity. There is also a discussion about comparing energies at the Earth's surface and at infinity.

Discussion Status

The discussion is ongoing, with participants questioning the assumptions made about kinetic energy and its relationship to gravitational potential energy. Some guidance has been offered regarding the conditions necessary for escape velocity, but multiple interpretations of the energy terms are still being explored.

Contextual Notes

There are references to specific energy terms and their relationships, but the discussion is complicated by the participants' varying interpretations of these terms and their implications for escape velocity.

hadronthunder
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Hi friends.

Somewhere in a reference book I read about escape speed of a particle for earth.
Let a particle is projected from the Earth surface. Let its mass be m and speed of projection be u. Let mass of Earth be M and its radius be R.

According to law of conservation of energy,
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/q86/s720x720/1175485_1407193806174392_209657781_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/q88/s720x720/1236159_1407193812841058_1152852378_n.jpg
The problem is that,

If the Ist term becomes negative also but its magnitude is less than the IInd term, then also final Kinetic energy will be positive. And the particle will never doesn't give the proper answer. Friend isn't it so?
Please help me in understanding this.
Thank you all in advance.
 
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The first term in what? You mean term I in the first relation?
That's kinetic energy - does it make physical sense to have a negative kinetic energy?
 
Simon Bridge said:
The first term in what? You mean term I in the first relation?
That's kinetic energy - does it make physical sense to have a negative kinetic energy?

The first term is in the second relation. the complete 1/2(mu2) - (GMm)R

The complete term can be negative due to less value of 1/2 (mu2).
 
For escape velocity you're comparing the total energy at the surface of a massive body and at infinity from it.

This means that the second term [itex]\frac{GMm}{R+h}[/itex] will always be zero. So the first term can not be less in magnitude than the second one.If the first term becomes negative due to too low a value of initial velocity U, it simply means that the velocity U is too low to escape the gravity of the massive body.
 

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