Then they can multiply and divide easily.

(Remind your students if

(Rianst surfaceisrelatedtothemassandradiusof
necessary that when multiplying exponents add, and when dividing
Earthby: exponents subtract.)

&Me
G66Min Pluggingintherelationshipsforthemassand
radiusofMarsintermsofthemassandradius
2) While the idea of an electric field is not assessed on the AP Physics 1
HERoan) Exam, your students will find the idea of electric field extremely difficult
ofEarth: if they haven’t studied the foundational idea of the gravitational field.
Talk to students about how we can measure the gravitational field by
dividing the gravitational force felt by an object by the object’s mass—
Simplifying allowing us to create a map of how much force per mass an object
would experience at every point around a massive object. Discuss the
size and the direction of the gravitational field. At Earth’s surface, it is
4-4CAD
Simplifying mostly uniform and directed straight down, but then when we consider
Earth as a sphere, the gravitational field points inward, toward the
center of Earth.
TheaccelerationduetogravityonMarsis Students may not be aware that there is a universal force of gravitation,
approximatelytotheaccelerationduetogravity and by using Earth’s dimensions, we can calculate the accepted
onEarth,orabout#m/s?.
acceleration due to gravity. This relationship can be applied to any pair
of objects to determine the attractive force between them. When given
Argumentation
PARTC:Arockisdropped2.0metersabovethesurfaceofMars.Doesthisrocktakealongerorashorter a formula, students will be responsible for checking if it makes physical
timetofallthanarockdropped2.0mabovethesurfaceofEarth?Justifyyouranswerwithout
sense. They need to be taught to check the relationships. For example,

AP Physics Workbook Answer K…

do the variables appear in the numerator or dominator and how does
TheaccelerationduetogravityonMarsislessthanonEarth.
changing the variables affect the equation as a whole?
Therefore,itwilltakelongertofallthesamedistance
onMars.

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Assess
3GravitationalSields
To further assess student understanding of the concepts addressed in
this scenario, you may want to ask students the questions below:
How does the radial distance away from the center of a planet affect the
PARTo:Ontheniemet.astudentfindstheagunnaemmationorthetimeanonactwiltaketofalltothe acceleration due to gravity? If you were on the top of a mountain and
2hG dropped an object, would that object feel the same force compared to if
groundfromaneigntn,depenaingonthemassand oftheplanettheobjectison:/=
you dropped it standing at the surface of the planet?
Regardlessofwhetherthisequationiscorrect,doesitagreewithyourqualitativereasoninginPartC?
Inotherwords,doesthisequationforthavetheexpecteddependenceasreasonedinPartC?

Yes No
Briellyexplainyourreasoningwithoutdervinganequationfor.

BoththemassandtheradiusofMarsaresmallerthan
themassandradiusofEarth,whichleadstoasmaller
accelerationandalargertimeforaconstantheightThis
equationshowsthatifMandRarebothsmaller,thetimeto
fallshouldbelarger,whichiswhatwepredicted.
Anothershyientcorvinaanemiationforthetimpittakesforanoniesttofallfromheighthimakes

mistakeandcomesuowith:I=
V2GMIWithoutderivingthecorrectequation,howcanyoutell
thatthisequationisnotplausible-inotherwords,thatitdoesnotmakephysicalsense?Briefly
explainyourreasoning.

Ifyouincreasetheheightthattheobjectisfallingfrom,the
timeshouldn'tdecrease,whichiswhatthisequationsays.Also.
theunitsdonotgivesecondsifanalyzed.

What’s the point?

When doing derivations, mistakes can happen, but if you check the
units and also check each variable to make sure that what you expect
to happen is represented by your equation, you’ll be more likely to catch
any mistakes!

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UNIT
AP Physics 1 Workbook Circular Motion and Gravitation Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation
3
EK | 2.B.1, 2.B.2, 3.A.4, 3.C.1, 3.G.1 SP | 2.1, 2.2, 5.1, 5.3, 6.1, 7.2

Prepare
Geosynchronous means that the object orbits along with the surface of
the moon, staying over one place on the surface and having the same
period of rotation as the surface: T satellite = T surface .

Teach
Have your students finish this activity. They have a linearized graph with
a best-fit line. Have them calculate the slope of the graph. (It should be
about 3 × 10−16 s 2/m 3 .) From that, have them calculate the mass of Jupiter.

Assess
To further assess student understanding of the concepts addressed in
this scenario, you may want to ask students the questions below:
What would happen to the period of the moons if the mass of Jupiter was
increased? What if the mass increased, but the density of the planet did
not change?

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