Exam 17: Measuring a Bodys Mass Using Orbital Motion

The sum of the masses of the Sun and Jupiter is equal to

A centripetal force on an object moving in a circle always points toward the center of the circle.

To find the centripetal force equation, we must _____ the velocity.

To determine the mass of an object you need to know _____ and _____ from the other body you orbit.

We can use Newton's version of Kepler's 3rd law to measure the masses of stars.

Centripetal force applies to a body ___.

Using the centripetal acceleration equation and knowing the velocity and radius we can find the _____.

We can find the mass of a star if we know the __________ and ___________ speed of a planet's orbit around the star.