A ball is dropped from a spacecraft revolving around the earth at a height of \(120 \mathrm{~km}\). What…

A ball is dropped from a spacecraft revolving around the earth at a height of \(120 \mathrm{~km}\). What will happen to the ball ?
  1. It will continue to move with same speed along the original orbit of spacecraft
  2. It will move with the same speed tangentially to the original orbit
  3. It will fall down to the earth gradually
  4. It will go very far in space

Solution

When ball is dropped from a spacecraft revolving around the earth at a height \(120 \mathrm{~km}\), then speed of ball is same as speed of spacecraft because orbit of ball is same as spacecraft, hence it will continue to move with same speed along the original orbit of spacecraft.

Asked in: AP EAMCET 2020 (21 Sep Shift 2)

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