NOTE: The first part of Equ(3) below appears in various forms all over

these solutions. To see where it comes from, please read the expanded
solution for Homework 8, Problem 3 (second-last line of equations).

Phys 326 Problem Set No.9 Solutions

Di Zhou

Pluto to Saturn

(a) When the spaceship is at the circular orbit of Pluto, the velocity is
r
GM
v1 =
R1
Similarly when the spaceship is at the circular orbit of Saturn, the velocity is
r
GM
v2 =
R2

(1)

(2)

Now the spaceships velocity changes from v1 to v, which allows him to travel in an elliptic orbit, reaching
Saturn. The ellipse parameter 2a = R1 + R2 , which means
s
GM m
GM m
2GM R2
1
2
mv
(3)
=
v=
2
R1
R1 + R2
R1 (R1 + R2 )
when reaching Saturn, the velocity v 0 is given by
1
GM m
GM m
mv 02
=
v=
2
R2
R1 + R2

2GM R1
R2 (R1 + R2 )

(4)

Hence the ratio between v1 and v is

v1
=
v

v0
=
v2

R1 + R2
=
2R2

2R1
=
R1 + R2

2
5

(5)

5
8

(6)

and the ratio between v and v2 is

(b) When reaching Saturn and change the orbit back to circular orbit, the velocity is inversely proportional
to the square root of radius, which means,
r
v2
R1
=
=2
(7)
v1
R2

(c) The total travel time is half of the period of the elleptic orbit, therefore, we have,
r
T
(R1 + R2 )3 /8
t=
=
= 62.5a
2
GM

(8)

GSO = Geo-Synchronous Orbit

p
(a) When the satellite is at the height of 25km, its speed is GM/r. The new orbit is an ellipse. Hence, if
we want the satellite to go under elliptical orbit, the velocity should be changed to
1
GM m
GM m
mv 02
=
2 1
R1
2R2

(9)

Hence the velocity change is

s
v1 =

v10

v1 =

GM

2
1

R1
R2

GM
= 2.78 103 m/s
R1

(10)

(b) Since the orbit is an ellipse, the apogee distance is given by

2R2 R1 = 7.8 104 km

(11)

Therefore the apogee distance is

Escape !

(a) The escape velocity is defined that the kinetic energy becomes zero when the spaceship reaches infinite
distance from the earth. This means that the kinetic energy should just equal to the potential energy when
the spaceship is at distance r from the earth. Therefore,
r
GM m
2GM
1
2
mv
=0v=
(12)
2
r
r

(b) The energy of a spaceship at distance r and velocity v is given by

r
1
GM m
2GM
2E
2
E = mv
v=
+
2
r
m
r

E<0

Now, if the spaceship want to escape, the required velocity is

r
2GM
0
v =
r

(13)

(14)

Therefore, the change of velocity is given by

v = v 0 v =

r
2GM

1
1

r
2a

!
(15)

m
where please note that E = GM
2a . We want to save the energy, which means we want to minimize the
velocity change, therefore, we can put derivative on the function v, which is,
!
r
dv
GM
1
=
1 + p
>0
(16)
r
dr
2r3/2
1 2a

which is always positive. This means that the velocity change increases with the increase of r, hence, we
should choose Peregee to launch the rocket and increase the spaceships speed.
2

A Satellite Experiences a Drag Force

(a) Using spherical coordinates, we can divide the acceleration into ridial part and angular part, therefore
the Newtons 2nd law is given by
F~
+ 2r )

= ~a = r(
r r 2 ) + (r
m

(17)

On the other hand, the total force comes from the drag force and gravity, therefore, we have
GM
F~

r + r )
= 2 r 2(r
m
r

(18)

We can divide the eom into radial part and angular part, which is,
GM
r r 2 = 2 2 r
r
r + 2r = 2r

(19)

Note that in the second equation, if we multiply r and the r.h.s. and l.h.s., we find
r2 + 2rr = 2r2

(20)

d 2
r2 = L0 e2t
(r ) = 2(r2 )
dt

(21)

we find
Since d(r2 )/dt
= r2 + 2rr ,

Plug this relation back to the radial equation we obtained above, we find,
r

GM
L20 e4t
= 2 2 r
r3
r

(22)

This is the other equation we were asked to prove.

(b) After dropping terms contain r and r, the radial equation is

L20 e4t
GM
L20 4t
=

r
=
e
r3
r2
GM

(23)

Plug this result into the angular relation, we find,

G2 M 2 6t
e
=
L30

(24)

The radius is slowly contracting; however, since the angular velocity increases, and the time derivative of
r is small, we find that the velocity of the satellite is increasing.

(c) At t = 0 the orbit is almost circular and hence of course we can use the approximation that r r 0.
L20 4t
For t > 0, we find that since the approximate solution for r is r = GM
, we can estimate that r
e
and r 2 , which means that given is very small, this approximation is still valid since other quantities
are much greater than them.

A Wee Bit of Scattering

The cross section tells us the effective area that governs the probability of scattering. Therefore, the possibility for a incoming particle to be scattered is given by the product of areal number density of Copper and
Copper cross section. The number density of Copper is given by
n=

8.9 103
m3
1.66 1027 63.5

(25)

The areal number density of Copper is

nS = nd

(26)

where d is the thickness of Copper. The probability of a particle to be scattered is

P = nS

(27)

where is cross section. Finally, the total particles which are scattered is
N = Ninc P = 1.69 105

(28)