Question

Why total energy of a spacecraft must be non-negative if we want spacecraft to escape from the Earth's gravitational field?

Answer 1

energy is scalar,,, its always positive.. i think u confusin itwith negative gravitational potential

Answer 2

It's written "The spacecraft will escape if \[E \ge0\]". If it is always positive, than spacecraft would escape in any case.

Answer 3

This is because of how we defined gravitational potential energy. We take infinity as 0. Anything that has negative means it is bound.

It's like this debt of energy anything on Earth has to pay to escape into infinity, never to be bothered by Earth again.

Answer 4

frm where did u read it?? nd is it mentioned what E represents?? it must b escape velocity.. i think

Answer 5

@mr.singh E is "energy of the new orbit"

Answer 6

kk

Answer 7

the space craft leaves if its vel is > escape vel of earth.. dats for sure

Answer 8

energy of new orbit may represent the gravitational energy of spacecraft on its orbit..

Answer 9

aaa ok, I found now what is escape velocity... I am not familiar with physics. :) It's written all on wikipedia :) Thanks anyway :)

Answer 10

welcum g