Neptune dance

Three planets interact with one another through their mutual gravitational forces only; they are isolated in free space and do not interact with any other bodies. They orbit around an axis going through the center-of-mass of the system and perpendicular to the triangle formed by the planets. What should be the angular velocity ω \omega in rad/s so that the shape and size of the triangle remains unchanged during the rotation?

Note: Round this to the nearest nano-radians/sec, so if your answer was 2.2 × 1 0 9 rad/s 2.2 \times 10^{-9}\mbox{rad/s} you would round to 2 × 1 0 9 rad/s 2\times 10^{-9}\mbox{rad/s} .

Details and assumptions

  • The area of the triangle is 1 A.U. 2 1~\mbox{A.U.}^2 .
  • The total mass of the planets is 3 × 1 0 26 kg 3 \times 10^{26}~\mbox{kg} .
  • G = 6.67 × 1 0 11 m 3 / kg s 2 G=6.67\times 10^{-11}~\mbox{m}^3/\mbox{kg s}^2 .
  • This problem was submitted by Italo X.


The answer is 1E-9.

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2 solutions

Arnab Animesh Das
Aug 15, 2013

As, the area of the triangle formed by the planets, needs to be constant at every moment under the influence of mutual gravitational force, it can be safely concluded that, the mass of each planet needs to be same i.e. m = 3 1 0 26 3 = 1 1 0 26 k g . m=\frac{3*10^{26}}{3}=1*10^{26}kg. and they need to keep themselves at equal distances; for stability under symmetrical action of mutual gravitational forces, thus forming an equilateral triangle with its centroid coinciding with the center-of-mass of the system along which the axis passes, having an area ( A ) (A) of 1 A.U. 2 = ( 149.6 1 0 9 ) 2 m 2 1\text{ A.U.}^2=(149.6*10^9)^2\,m^2 . Let's say, the length of each side = distance between the planets= " a " "a" , and the circum-radius of the triangle=radius of the orbit= " r " "r" . So, it follows that r = a 3 r=\frac{a}{\sqrt{3}} ,and A = 3 ( a 2 ) 4 A=\frac{\sqrt{3}*(a^2)}{4} . The forces acting on each of the planets, are (i) Centripetal force (i.e. m r ω 2 mr\omega^2 ) and (ii) The gravitational forces (i.e G m m a 2 \frac{G*m*m}{a^2} due to the other two planets acting along the adjacent sides of the triangle with the planet at their common end, which are at an angular separation of 3 0 -30^{\circ} & 3 0 30^{\circ} from the line of action of centripetal force. Therefore, taking the components of forces along the line of action of centripetal force, and considering the fact that, the forces are in equilibrium, it can be written & simplified as follows: m r ω 2 = G m m a 2 cos 3 0 + G m m a 2 cos ( 30 ) mr\omega^2=\frac{G*m*m}{a^2}*\cos{30^{\circ}}+\frac{G*m*m}{a^2}*\cos{(-30)^{\circ}} ω = 3 G m a 3 = 3 G m ( 4 A 3 ) 3 2 . \Rightarrow\omega=\sqrt{\frac{3*G*m}{a^3}}=\sqrt{\frac{3*G*m}{{(\frac{4*A}{\sqrt{3}})}^\frac{3}{2}}}. On substituting the values, we get Angular Velocity = ω = 1.3 1 0 9 r a d / s . \text{Angular Velocity}=\omega=1.3*10^{-9} rad/s. ω 1 1 0 9 r a d / s . \Rightarrow\omega\approx1*10^{-9} rad/s. (after rounding up as mentioned in the problem.) N.B - All the notations denote their usual meanings, unless otherwise specified

why is it we can't just consider the attraction of a single planet to the center of mass of the system?

Denny Trimcev - 7 years, 9 months ago

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What are you talking about? Hope this post of mine, clears up your mind. The resultant force acting on each of the 3 particles must be directed towards the center of mass of the system, and hence to keep all the particles in the same orbit , with the area of triangle, kept unchanged , the particles must be identical, located at farthest possible distance from each other on an orbit , moving, balancing their forces due to motion and gravitation, vectorially, keeping the radius of the orbit same, all the time . In this case the only centripetal force acting on each of them, develops due to the gravitational forces from the other 2 planets, and the centrifugal force balances it, keeping them in place and in the most stable condition possible. It's that simple.

Arnab Animesh Das - 7 years, 9 months ago

How did you assume the mass of the planets to be the same????

Krishna Jha - 7 years, 9 months ago

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Otherwise the angle velocities will be different, and thus the system could not keep stable

Ziyuan Lin - 7 years, 9 months ago

I think I know how to do this but simply don't know what A.U. stands for (I thought it was "area unit")

Ziyuan Lin - 7 years, 9 months ago

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It stands for Astronomical Unit... For definition see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit

Krishna Jha - 7 years, 9 months ago

I've devised my own system based on the information given:-

-The mass of all three planets are equal

-The planets are placed at the three corners of an equilateral triangle

Thus, the side and altitude of the triangle can be calculated from Area as:-

-side(S)=sqrt{4*(Area) /sqrt{3}}

-Altitude(A)=(side)/sqrt{3}

-The radius(r) of the orbit of any one of the planets is equal to 2/3 times the altitude of the triangle.

-This implies, r = 2(A)/3

-let the angular velocity of planet be 'w' and mass be 'm'.

-We can say that the net gravitational attraction of the two planets provides the necessary centripetal acceleration to the third planet.

-Therefore, (w^2)r=Gm/(S^2)

-Thus w = sqrt{Gm/r(S^2)}

The net force would be G m 2 S 2 3 \frac{Gm^2}{S^2}\sqrt{3} and hence answer should be G m 3 r S 2 \sqrt{\frac{Gm\sqrt{3}}{rS^2}}

varun kaushik - 7 years, 10 months ago

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yup..You're right..

Somayajulu Dhulipala - 7 years, 10 months ago

yes you are right , but one doubt . what if masses were un equal

Lalit Shrinivas - 7 years, 10 months ago

correct but bro. what if masses are different

Lalit Shrinivas - 7 years, 10 months ago

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