Question

Which of the following would increase the gravitational force between two objects?
A. Increasing the mass of one of the objects.
B. Increasing the distance between the objects.
C. Increasing the velocity of one of the objects.
D. Increasing the air resistance of one of the objects.

Answer 1

Do you know the formula for gravitational force?

Answer 2

No I do not

Answer 3

\[F _{g} = \frac{ G m_{1} m_{2} }{ r^2}\]

Answer 4

G is the gravitational constant.
M1 and m2 are the masses of each object
R^2 is the distance between the objects.

If you’ve seen Coulomb’s Law before, the relationships are similar. Gravitational force is directly proportional to the mass of the objects, and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects.

Answer 5

When doing gravitational force problems, you’re usually working in a vacuum unless otherwise mentioned, so you can eliminate D. It’s irrelevant when it comes to the formula as well. Velocity also doesn’t have an impact on gravitational force, as we can see from our formula.

Answer 6

We are left with A and B, which talk about the mass and distance, both quite relevant.

Answer 7

What do you think the answer is?

Answer 8

If you don’t understand something, let me know and I can clarify.

Answer 9

@Mal87

Answer 10

I think the answer is A. but I am not sure about it.

Answer 11

Well mass is directly proportional to gravitational force, so if you increase the the mass, the gravitational force will increase.

Answer 12

So you’re correct

Answer 13

If you increase the distance by a factor of three, the gravitational force would go down by a factor of nine.

Answer 14

Thank you again for helping I am not very good at science.

Answer 15

Inverse square relationship

Answer 16

No problem, glad I could help.