Question

What happens to the force of attraction. When:
$1.$ Distance is doubled
$2.$ Masses are doubled
$3.$ Distance is reduced by half?

Answer 1

Every object in the universe is under the force of the gravitational.Any two objects attract each other and is directly proportional to the product of the mass and inversely proportional to the square of distance between the two.

Formula used:
$g = G\dfrac{M}{{{R^2}}}$
where $g$ is the gravity of acceleration and $G$ is the gravitational force.

Complete step by step answer:
Force of gravitation between two objects can be defined as directly proportional to the product of the masses of the objects.
$1.$ When the distance between the objects is doubled then the force of attraction will become one fourth times.
$\dfrac{1}{{{2^2}}} = \dfrac{1}{4}$
$2.$ When masses are doubled then their product will become four times and therefore the force of attraction will be quadrupled.
$3.$ When distance between the objects is halved, then the force of attraction will become –
$\dfrac{1}{{{{\left( {\dfrac{1}{2}} \right)}^2}}} = \dfrac{1}{{\dfrac{1}{4} = 4}}$
Hence, the force of attraction will become four times.

Note: Be good in understanding the different conditions and simplify it accordingly by placing it in the standard formula. Remember the difference between the $g$ (gravitational acceleration) and the $G$ (Gravitational constant). Since in $G$ only magnitude is important it is the scalar quantity whereas, in g both the magnitude and the direction are important, and therefore it is vector quantity. The value of “G” remains constant throughout the globe whereas, the value of “g” changes from every place on the planet. Go through certain basic parameters and the physical quantities to solve these types of word problems.