ASTR 300A HW5

Sai Krishanth PM
December 20, 2020

1
a. We could estimate the number of doctors in the world using the following factors: how
many students enter medical school each year x how many of those students graduate
medical school x how many of those students end up not going into a purely research
based field. This will give us the total number of doctors coming into the workforce in
a year. This combined with the average career span of a doctor will give us the total
number of doctors.

b. We’d have to find out the number of universities that offer an astronomy degree and
look at their average graduation rate.

c. This would be a very similar calculation as the last one. I would expect this to be
higher than the previous estimate because more people enter a PhD in astronomy with
a degree other than astronomy than with one.

2
a. Let us consider the Earth-Moon system. The angular momentum of this system will
be conserved because there is no external torque acting on it. Then we can write down
our equations that describe angular momentum:
2 2 2π
LE = IE ωE = ME RE
5 TE
Here the E subscript indicates the earth and the final expression is the product of
the moment of inertia of a sphere and the angular velocity of the earth. The angular
momentum for the moon is given by a similar expression, but we now also have to
account for the moon orbiting around the earth:
2 2 2π 2π
LM = MM RM + MM a2
5 TM TM
Here a is the distance from the moon to the earth and both the period of the moon going
around the earth and rotating about its own axis is the same because the moon is tidally
locked. We can add both these quantities to obtain our initial angular momentum:
2 2 2π 2 2 2π 2π
Li = ME RE + MM RM + MM a2
5 TE 5 TM TM
Since we do not have our final period (that is what we are looking for) but we have
our moments of inertia for the earth and the moon, we could construct an equation
that describes the final angular momentum of the system:
2 2 2π
 
2 2
Lf = ME RE + MM RM + MM a2f
5 5 Tf
Here we have replaced a with af and T with Tf . af will give us the answer to part b. As
stated at the beginning, the angular momentum of the system will remain conserved,
so we can det these two quantities equal to each other:
2 2 2π 2 2 2π 2π 2 2 2π
 
ME RE + MM RM + MM a2 = 2
ME RE 2
+ MM RM + MM a2f
5 TE 5 TM TM 5 5 Tf

1
 However, it would be impossible to solve the above equation, there are two unknown
variables and one equation. But, using Kepler’s third law, we can write the final
distance in terms of the final period, therefore simplifying it to a quadratic equation.
We use the following formula:
 2
T GM 2/3
f E
a2f =
4π 2
First, we can plug in the values for the LHS and find the initial angular momentum.
Doing so yields a value of 3.596x1034 kgm2 s−1 Let us substitute this into our equation
with the initial and final angular momentum along with the previous substitution for
af :
 2
34

2 2 2 2 Tf GME 2/3  2π
3.596 ∗ 10 = ME RE + MM RM + MM
5 5 4π 2 Tf
We can further simplify the above equation by plugging in values on the RHS as well:
6.11 ∗ 104 1/3
3.596 = + (2.156 ∗ 10−2 )Tf
Tf
Solving for Tf , we get two values. The first value is 5.64 hours and the second value
is 53.1 days. The first solution is disregarded and we assume that the second solution
is the answer. We do this because we expect the radius of the orbit of the moon to
increase over time which would lead to an increased period of rotation.

b. Using our expression obtained by using Kepler’s law and plugging in the values obtained
in the previous part, we get the final distance as 596638 km.

c. The eventual speed can be obtained by:

2πaf
v=
Tf
Plugging in the values, we get 0.817 km/s which is slower than today.

3
a. We could write down the following formula to accomplish this:
GMmoon δm
∆F = − (2ηcosθ + ηsinθ)
r2
When the moon is overhead, θ is zero and therefore:
2ηGMmoon δm
∆F = −
r2
Dividing this by the force of gravity caused by the earth:
2ηGMmoon
∆F = −
gr2
This works because Fearth = δmg. Multiplying this ratio by the mass of a human who
weighs 100 newtons, there seems to be a reduction of 11 millinewtons of weight.

b. We use the same formula as above but substitute 90 degrees instead of 0:

ηGMmoon δm
∆F = −
r2
Again diving by the force of gravity of the earth:
ηGMmoon
∆F = −
gr2
Substituting in the values, and realizing that the force vector is pointed in the opposite
direction compared to before, we get an increase in weight of 5.58 millinewtons when
considering a person weighing 100 newtons.

2
4
a. According to the one body approximation:
s
a3
T = 2π
GMS
a is the semimajor axis of jupiter and MS is the mass of the sun. This gives a period
of 368583294.5 seconds which is 11.688 years.

b. According to the two body approximation:

s
a3
T = 2π
Gµ
Here µ is the combined weight of both the sun and jupiter. This gives a period of
368399141 seconds which is 11.682 years.