GRAVITATION

Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation

1. Two spherical balls of mass 10 kg each are placed 100 m apart. Find the gravitational force of
attraction between them.
2. Two particles of masses 1.0 kg and 2.0 kg are placed at a separation of 50 cm. assuming that the only
forces acting on the particles are their mutual gravitation; find the initial accelerations of the two
particles.
3. Three particles A, B and C each of mass m are lying at the corners of an equilateral triangle of side L.
If the particle A is released keeping the particles B and C fixed, the magnitude of instantaneous
acceleration of A is
Gm2 Gm 2 Gm Gm
(a) 3 2 (b) 2 2 (c) 2 2 (d) 3 2
L L L L
4. Two stationary particles of masses M1 and M2 are’d’ distance apart. A third particle lying on the line
joining the particles, experiences no resultant gravitational force. What is the distance of this particle
from M1?
5. Three masses, each equal to M are placed at the three corners of a square of side a. Calculate the
force of attraction on unit mass placed at the fourth corner.
6. Four identical point masses, each equal to M are placed at the four corners of a square of side a.
Calculate the force of attraction on another point mass m kept at the centre of the square.
7. Three identical particles each of mass m are placed at the three corners of an equilateral triangle of
side "a". Find the gravitational force exerted on one body due to the other two.
8. Four particles having masses m, 2m, 3m and 4m are placed at the four corners of a square of edge a.
Find the gravitational force acting on a particle of mass m placed at the centre.
9. Three equal masses m are placed at the three corners of an equilateral triangle of side a. Find the
force exerted by this system on another particle of mass m placed at (a) the mid-point of a side, (b) at
the centre of the triangle.
10. Three uniform spheres each having a mass M and radius a are kept in such a way that each touches
the other two. Find the magnitude of the gravitational force on any of the spheres due to the other
two.
11. Three particles A, B and C, each of mass m, are placed in a line with AB = BC = d. Find the
gravitational force on a fourth particle P of same mass, placed at a distance d from the particle B on
the perpendicular bisector of the line AC.
12. Six particles each of mass ‘m’ are placed at six vertices A, B, C, D, E and F of a regular hexagon of side
‘a’. A seventh particle of mass ‘M’ is kept at centre ‘O’ of the hexagon.
(a) Find net force on ‘M’. (b) Find net force on ‘M’ if particle at A is removed. (c) Find net force on ‘M’
if particles at A and C are removed.
13. Five particles each of mass ‘m’ are kept at five vertices of a regular pentagon. A sixth particle of mass
‘M’ is kept at centre of the pentagon ‘O’. Distance between ‘M’ and ‘m’ is ‘a’. Find
(a) Net force on ‘M’
(b) Magnitude of net force on ‘M’ if any one particle is removed from one of the vertices.
14. A large number of identical point masses m are placed along x-axis, at x = 0, 1, 2, 4, ........The
magnitude of gravitational force on mass at origin (x = 0), will be
2 4 2 2 2 5 2
(a) Gm (b) Gm (c) Gm (d) Gm
3 3 4
15. Find the distance of a point from the earth’s centre where the resultant gravitational field due to the
earth and the moon is zero. The mass of the earth is 6.0 × 1024 kg and that of the moon is 7.4 × 1022
kg. The distance between the earth and the moon is 4.0 × 105 km.
16. Two point masses m and 4m are separated by a distance d on a line. A third point mass m0 is to be
placed at a point on the line such that the net gravitational force on it is zero. The distance of that
point from the m mass is
d d d d
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 4 3 5
17. Two particles each of equal mass (m) move along a circle of radius (r) under the action of their
mutual gravitational attraction. Find the speed of each particle.
18. Three particles, each of mass m, are situated at the vertices of an equilateral triangle of side 'a'. The
only forces acting on the particles are their mutual gravitational forces. It is intended that each
particle moves along a circle while maintaining their original separation 'a'. Determine the initial
velocity that should be given to each particle and the time period of the circular motion.
19. Four particles of equal masses M move along a circle of radius R under the action of their mutual
gravitational attraction. Find the speed of each particle.
20. Two solid spheres of same size of a certain metal are placed in contact with each other. The
gravitational force acting between them is directly proportional to the _____ power of their radius.
21. A mass (M) is split into two parts (m) and (M-m), which are then separated by a certain distance.
What ratio m/M will maximise the gravitational force between them?
22. A mass m is at a distance a from one end of a uniform rod of length l and mass M. Find the
gravitational force on the mass due to the rod.
23. A uniform ring of mass m is lying at a distance √3a from the centre of a sphere of mass M just over
the sphere (where a is the radius of the ring as well as that of the sphere). Find the magnitude of
gravitational force between them.
24. A uniform sphere of mass M and radius R is surrounded by a concentric spherical shell of same mass
but radius 2R. A point mass m is kept at a distance x (>R) in the region bounded by spheres as shown
in the figure. The net gravitational force on the particle is
GMm GMmx G M  m
(a) 2
(b) 3
(c) (d) Zero
x R x2