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I have a discussion with a friend about geostationary satelites orbiting earth.
I'm shure they all have the excact same distance from earth, but my friend are certain that the distance from earth dipends on the satelites weight.
Can anyone help med with my theory, and explain how this works?
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First off as a disclaimer, I don't have numbers for you, just what physics I have learned. That said, the satellites will be the same distance away from the Earth. While the mass of an object does effect the force of Gravity, the amount of mass required is on such a large scale (i.e. planetary) that it can be ignored for this purpose.
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Fyi, all geo-synch satelites orbit about 22,000 miles above the ground, regardless of weight. Weight only matters on launch, the more you have of it the more money you have to fork over to NASA (Hence all the satelites on Atkins). Satelites in GEO just happen to have an orbit that completes a revolution in the same amount of time that Earth completes a day. Weight is not a factor.
A mind is like a parachute- it works best when open.
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