Question #fa936
1 Answer
The only magnitude which changes is the linear momentum. Angular momentum and kinetic energy are constant.
Explanation:
The satellite which is revolving in a circular orbit around the Earth has gravity force, pulling towards the Earth, in balance with the centrifuge force, pulling towards the space,
where
M = mass of Earth ; m= mass of satellite ; r= distance from the satellite to the centre of Earth ; G= gravitation constant
Therefore, the module of speed of satellite is constant, so the module of linear momentum is constant but not its direction. A satellite in circular orbit has as linear momentum
The kinetic energy is defined as
As the orbit of the satellite is flat the angular momentum is conserved, consequently, does not change.