What is the minimum initial velocity necessary for an object to leave Earth?

The problem can be easily solved using energy formulas. The only force that acts on the departing object is the gravitational force, which is conservative. Therefore the total energy is conserved on the trajectory:E=mv2/2-GmM/r=ct.The energy on the surface of the planet is:E=mv2i/2-GmM/R where vi is the initial velocity and R is the radius of Earth.At infinity(where the objects eventually gets since it leaves Earth):E=mv2f/2 where vf is the final velocity, which will be set to 0 in order to minimise the initial velocity.Equating the energies of the two positions we get:mv2i/2-GmM/R=0vi=(2GM/R)1/2 After introducing the values for the gravitational constant, mass and radius of Earth we get the final velocity:vi=11.2 km/s

Answered by Leontica S. Physics tutor

1598 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

What is EMF? How do we test for it?


How do you prove Kepler's Third Law?


what depends if the universe is expanding or not


A car undergoes uniform acceleration from a starting velocity of 10ms^-1 to 20ms^-1 in 10s. Assuming the car's mass is 2000kg, calculate the net force in the direction of the acceleration.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo
Cookie Preferences