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Last Post 10/19/2011 7:58 AM by  Terry Kucera
mars
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10/19/2011 5:59 AM

    how strong is Mars gravity?

    how long does it take for the sun light to go to Mars?

    how strong is the gravity Mars two little moons Phobos and Deimos?

    Tags: Mars

    Terry Kucera



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    10/19/2011 7:58 AM

    Hi there.

    So to figure out these I am going to do a little calculation:

    Fource of gravity = G*M*m/r^2, where G is a constant, M is the mass of the planet, m is another object, and r is how far you are form the center of the object (so the radius of the planet if you are on its surface).

    So if you are interested in how much the gravity would be compared to Earth you would have

    F_mars/F_Earth=(G*M_mars*m/R_mars^2 ) / (G*M_earth*m/R_earth^2 )= M_Mars/M_Earth *(R_earth/R_Mars)^2

    So, from http://nineplanets.org/ I have

    M_mars= 6.4219e23 kg M_earth=5.972e24 kg R_Mars=3397 km R_Earth=6378 km

    The format with the "e" (1e6 for instance) is a short hand way of saying that there should be that number of zeros after the number. So, 1e6=1,000,000.

    So the force of gravity is lower on Mars than Earth by a factor of ( 6.4219e23/5.972e2) *( 6378/3397)^2 = 0.38

    For Mars's moons you can do a similar calculation. They are not very round which makes it a little more complicated, but you can get in the ball park:

    For Phobos R=11km M=1.08e16 kg, so gravity is 0.0006 times that of eart

    For Demos R=6 km M=1.80e15 kg so I get that the gravity to be 0.00034 times that of Earth. You'd have to work mot to float away!

    Phobos 9 11 1.08e16 Hall 1877 Deimos 23 6 1.80e15


    Read more about Mars l Mars facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

    --------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ---- Phobos 9 11 1.08e16 Hall 1877 Deimos 23 6 1.80e15 Hall 1877


    Read more about Mars l Mars facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

    --------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ---- Phobos 9 11 1.08e16 Hall 1877 Deimos 23 6 1.80e15 Hall 1877


    Read more about Mars l Mars facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org--------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ---- Phobos 9 11 1.08e16 Hall 1877 Deimos 23 6 1.80e15 Hall 1877


    Read more about Mars l Mars facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

    You might be interested in this web page: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/

    The speed of light is about 300,000 km/s. The distance to Mars is about 227,940,000 km, so the time light needs to get from the Sun to Mars is

    227,940,000 km/ 300,000 km/s.=759.80 seconds = just under 13 minutes

    Cheers,

    Terry

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