In: Physics
e) Use the law of acceleration and find the value of the acceleration of the body that falls freely.
The force acting on any object of mass m on the surface of the planet is its weight which is ma where a is the acceleration of the object.
The force of gravitation acting between the object of mass m and the planet is where G is the universal gravitational constant, M is the mass of the planet and R is the radius of the planet.
When the object is freely falling, the weight of the object is balanced by the gravitational force between the object and the planet.
is the acceleration of the body that falls freely which only depends on the mass and radius of the planet and is independent of the mass m of falling object. .