A Law of Universal Gravitation Problem? Help Please.?

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Stephen

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The Sun's mass is about 3.2 x 10^5 times the Earth's mass. The Sun is about 400 times as far from the Earth as the Moon is. What is the ratio of the magnitude of the pull of the Sun on the Moon to that of the pull of the Earth on the Moon? (Assume that the Sun-Moon
distance is constant and equal to the Sun-Earth distance.)
 
Just plug in the numbers.

Do you have the equation?

F = (G*M*m)/r^2

F= force
G= gravitational constant
M= Mass of object 1
m = mass of object 2
r = distance

You should come up with the sun exerting roughly 178 times the gravitational force on the earth than the moon does. (Do not confuse this with the tidal force, or you will scratch your head all night long.)
 
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