A solid cone with volume mass density has the following description:
There is a point-particle of mass at position . What is the magnitude of the gravitational force exerted by the cone on the particle?
Details and Assumptions:
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Consider an arbitrary point in the cone:
R = r cos θ i ^ + r sin θ j ^ + z k ^
The position vector of the point at which the force is to be computed is:
p = 2 i ^ + 0 j ^ + 0 k ^
The calculation is done in cylindrical coordinates. The elementary force vector is:
d F = ∣ R − p ∣ 3 G ( ρ d V ) ( R − p ) = ∣ R − p ∣ 3 G ( ρ ( r d θ d r d z ) ) ( R − p )
Plugging in expressions, simplifying and recognising the pattern of summation yields:
F x = ∫ 0 2 ∫ 0 1 − 2 z ∫ 0 2 π ( r 2 − 4 cos ( θ ) r + z 2 + 4 ) 3 / 2 r ( r cos ( θ ) − 2 ) d θ d r d z
F y = ∫ 0 2 ∫ 0 1 − 2 z ∫ 0 2 π ( r 2 − 4 cos ( θ ) r + z 2 + 4 ) 3 / 2 r 2 sin ( θ ) d θ d r d z
F z = ∫ 0 2 ∫ 0 1 − 2 z ∫ 0 2 π ( r 2 − 4 cos ( θ ) r + z 2 + 4 ) 3 / 2 r z d θ d r d z
Each of these monsters is solved using Wolfram-Alpha to obtain a net magnitude of ∣ F ∣ ≈ 0 . 5 0 2 5 3
A code-based solution is as follows: