The acceleration due to gravity of an object of mass 1 kg in outer space is 2m/s2. What is the acceleration due to gravity of another object of mass 10 kg at the same point? Justify with arguments.
Solution
The acceleration due to gravity is independent of the mass of the object. It only depends on the gravitational field at that specific location, which is determined by the mass of the celestial body creating the field and the distance from it.
In this case, you are told that the acceleration due to gravity at that point in outer space is \(\rm 2 ms^{-2} \) for an object with a mass of 1 kg. Since acceleration due to gravity doesn't change with the mass of the object, the acceleration for an object of mass 10 kg at the same location will also be \(\rm 2 ms^{-2} \)
Justification:
Here, According to Newton's second law of motion, Force acting upon a body is equal to product of mass of the body(m) and acceleration(a) experienced by it.
\(\rm F\)= \(\rm m . a \)
According to universal law of gravitation, the value of gravitation experienced by the bodies mentioned in the question will be given by:
\(\rm F\)= $ \frac{GMm}{d^2}$
Where,
\(\rm F\)= Gravitational force experienced by bodies
\(\rm G\)= Universal Gravitational constant
\(\rm M\)= Mass of the celestial body/ planet that is influencing the bodies in outer space
\(\rm d\)= distance from the planet or celestial body.
From the above two relation:
$ \frac{GMm}{d^2}$=\(\rm m . a \)
$ \frac{GMm}{m.d^2}$=\(\rm a \)
$ \frac{GM}{d^2}$=\(\rm a \)
\(\rm a \)=$ \frac{GM}{d^2}$
It is observed that the mass of the object cancels out from the equation.
This shows that the acceleration due to gravity \(\rm g\) is the same for all objects regardless of their mass, as long as they are at the same distance from the planet or celestial body.