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Greywolfe1982
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Homework Statement
Given: G = 6.67259 × 10^−11 Nm2/kg2
A small Moon of a planet has an orbital period of 2.08 days and an orbital radius of 5.04 × 10^5 km.
From these data, determine the mass of the planet. Answer in units of kg.
Homework Equations
FG=FC
FG=Gm1m2/r^2
FC=mv^2/r
The Attempt at a Solution
First step was to convert into meters/seconds:
2.08 days to 179712 seconds
5.04x10^5km to 5.04x10^8m
Use v=d/t (or v=2[tex]\pi[/tex]r/T) and get a velocity of 17621.1m/s. Use Fg=Fc and simplify to Gm/r=v^2, rearrange to v^2r/G=m. I crunched out the numbers and get a mass that's nearly as large as the sun. The problem states it's a planet, so I'm assuming I'm doing something wrong...what is it?