Looking for classes? Ksquare Career Institute, Bengaluru →
Motion of satellites
Concepts tested here
- Central force motion
All Questions
2015 AIPMT-II 1 question
-
A satellite S is moving in an elliptical orbit around the earth. The mass of the satellite is very small compared to the mass of the earth. Then,The only force on S is earth's gravity, which always points towards the centre of the earth, so the acceleration is always directed towards the centre.
Being a central force, it conserves angular momentum (both magnitude and direction) and total mechanical energy; the speed, and so the linear momentum, changes along the ellipse.