Round and Round

"What goes up... Stays up?"

The image you are looking at shows the 18 GPS satellites plus three spares the United States keeps in various orbits around the Earth. GPS, the indispensable modern navigation tool, stands for Global Positioning System.

In the next three lessons, you will learn what keeps this complicated system working.

Homework Quiz

Introduction to Orbital Mechanics

Lesson Objectives:

• Know and review centripetal acceleration and centripetal force.
• Know and review Universal Gravitation.
• Understand "The Cavendish Experiment" and how it allows us to determine the mass of the Earth.

Objects Moving in Circles How Strong Is Gravity? Determining the Mass of the Earth

GPS System Geostationary Satellites Centripetal Force Review Universal Gravitation Review Centripetal Force Universal Gravitation

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