The space shuttle orbits 310 km above the surface of the earth.

what is the gravitational force on a 5.0 kg sphere inside the space shuttle?
express your answer with the appropriate units.

44.7 N

Explanation:

The gravitational force between the objects is given by:

where

G is the gravitational constant

m and M are the masses of the two objects

r is the distance between the centres of the two objects

In this problem, we have:

is the mass of the sphere

is the Earth's mass

is the Earth's radius, while h=310 km is the altitude of the sphere, so the distance of the sphere from Earth's centre is

Substituting into the equation, we find