Question

Suppose earth's orbital motion around the sun supposed to be in circular is suddenly stopped, what time will the earth take to fall into the sun?

A

days

B

days

C

days

D

days

Medium
Solution
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Correct option is A)

Kepler's law applies to planetary orbits, whether they be of circular, or elliptical shape. It says that  where T is the period of an orbit and R is its semi-major axis. The semi-major axis is the average of the planet's maximum and minimum distances from the sun.

Let the earth's mean radius be ..This straight fall can be considered 1/2 of a degenerate elliptical orbit with major axis equal to  . Its semi-major axis is  (the average of R1 and zero). Its period will be designated .

So: 

And therefore,  year, and the time to fall into the sun is the time to fall into the sun is ,64.52 days

 

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