Orbital Motion and Weightlessness

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Orbital Motion and Weightlessness Quiz

  Imagine that you are at the top of a mountain on an otherwise smooth surfaced and perfectly round planetoid with no atmosphere. You are thousands of feet above the normal surface level and there are no other tall objects on the planetoid. Being a small and low-mass body, the orbital velocity is also low. You shoot a bullet with exactly the orbital velocity straight out from the mountain top (that is, tangent to the surface of the planetoid). What should you do next?  
 

1: Scratch your head and wonder why the heck you just did that.
2: Immediately hike down the mountain for a cup of coffee at your base camp.
3: Jump up and down to see how far you can get in the low gravity.
4: Plant the flag on the mountain top and take photos.

ANSWER: Click here for the correct answer.

     
  Is it possible to weigh less on a planet larger than Earth?  
  1: Yes, Absolutely!
2: No
3: Only if the planet is farther from the Sun than Earth.
4: We don't have enough information to know.

ANSWER: Click here for the correct answer.

     
  Which is the more fundamental concept, weight or mass?  
  1: Weight
2: Mass
3: They are equally fundamental concepts.
4: It is impolite to discuss weight.

ANSWER: Click here for the correct answer.

  Astronauts orbiting above the Earth are "weightless," but what happens to their mass?  
  1: It diminishes as the inverse square of the distance from the Earth's center.
2: It increases to compensate for the loss of weight.
3: Nothing happens to it. It remains the same.
4: It appears to disappear along with weight.

ANSWER: Click here for the correct answer.