Chapter 5

Centripetal Force & Gravity

Example 13 Solution

 

We need to use Newton's Law of Gravitation on each of the particles with the purple mass. If we look at the problem carefully we see some symmetry. We note that and are equal and opposite so that they will cancel each other out. Second we note that the x components of and cancel each other out. The y components are equal and in the same direction. If we calculate one of them and double it we have the final answer.

 

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