How does gravity and inertia work together in space and how do gravity and inertia interact to produce the path of an orbiting satellite?
It looks like you're too lazy to find an answer for yourself. Anyway, search for 'gravity' and 'inertia', and you will find out that they are not interacting. After that, you may return, and that time with the necessary respect before the time spent by the people over here.
Dear Rk Naresh,
inertia is the retarding effect of accelerating a mass within its gravitational field.
Imagine gravitation as a back-flow towards the bary-center of a mass:
the speed of this flow is speed-of-light. Thus, if you accelerate the mass, the flow currently focusses at its old location, and will move this focus with delay. The strength of this delay depends on the amount of focusses to be accelerated as a whole, all particles of the mass -> effect of inertia!
Dear Rk Naresh,
since I found lots of very similar questions of your side, often with weired syntax, and no discussion is actually taken place from your side:
it seems to me as if you are simulating an "Artificial Intelligence" generating questions on interests.
If this is so, please stop that because unfortunately there is no filter to put your questions into spam folder...
Thanks a lot in advance.
They work like two horses hauling a barge in a canal. They run in parallel paths on each side of the canal. The opposite transverse components of the force cancel, while the components along the canal add.
Imagine a satellite floating in space. Here's how gravity and inertia work together to keep it in orbit:
- Gravity: Gravity, as defined by Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation, is a force that attracts any two objects with mass towards each other. In space, this means the Earth (or any other massive object) constantly pulls the satellite inward.
- Inertia: Inertia, based on Newton's first law of motion, is the tendency of an object to resist changes in its state of motion. If the satellite wasn't moving, it would stay still. But because it has inertia and was launched with a certain sideways velocity, it wants to continue moving in a straight line.
The orbital dance:
These two forces work in a constant tug-of-war:
- Gravity pulls the satellite inward: The Earth's gravity constantly pulls the satellite towards its center.
- Inertia keeps it moving forward: The satellite's inertia tries to make it fly off in a straight line.
The key is finding the right balance. If the satellite wasn't moving fast enough sideways, gravity would win and it would fall towards Earth. Conversely, if it was launched too fast, it might overcome Earth's gravity and escape into space altogether.
The result: an orbit!
By achieving the right launch velocity, the satellite reaches a point where the inward pull of gravity is constantly "balanced" by the outward tendency due to inertia. This balance creates a curved path around the Earth, which we call an orbit. The satellite keeps "falling" towards Earth, but never quite hits it because of its forward motion.
This concept applies to any orbiting object, from the Moon around Earth to artificial satellites.
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