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Saturday, December 6, 2014

ESCAPE VELOCITY AND ORBITAL VELOCITY OF SATELLITE :

Hello guys..!! Hope you all must be waiting eagerly for our next article. Here goes an explanation and derivation of escape velocity and its applications.

Escape velocity

It is the minimum velocity with which a body must be projected from the surface of the earth so that it escapes from the gravitational field of the earth. We can also say that a body, projected with escape velocity , will be able to go to a point which distance from the earth.

Let us imagine what happens to a body of mass m if it is thrown from the earth with a velocity (escape velocity). As the body moves away from the earth ,its slow sown hence,its kinetic energy is converted into gravitational potential energy of the mass-earth system.

KE lost by mass m=gain in gravitational potential energy of mass-earth system

Substituting the values of g=9.81m/s2 and R=6400km we get

Application of concepts of escape velocity :

The following are the applications of the concept of escape velocity. The maximum velocity attained by a particle, orbital velocity and time period of satellites can be found if we know the escape velocity.

(a) Maximum velocity attained by a particle

Suppose a particle of mass m is projected vertically upwards with speed v and we want find the maximum height h attained by the particle. Then , we can use conservation of mechanical energy

Decreases in kinetic energy=increases in gravitational potential energy

(b) Orbital velocity

The velocity of a satellite in its orbit is called orbital velocity. Let v be orbital velocity of satellite, then

Hence orbital velocity decided by the radius of its orbit or its height above the earth surface

(c) Time period of satellites

The time taken to complete revolution is called the time period. It is given by


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