Question

A satellite revolving in a circular equatorial orbit of radius r = 2.00 × 10⁴ km from west to east appear over a certain point at the equator every t = 11.6 hours. Using this data, calculate the mass of the earth. The gravitational constant is supposed to be known.

Answer 1

Here the absolute angular velocity of satellite is given by

Where ωE is the angular velocity of earth, which is from west to east

From Kepler's III law, we have