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V. Conceptual Questions · Q5

Q.If the Earth's pull on the Moon suddenly disappears, what will happen to the Moon?

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Step 1. Currently, Earth's gravitational pull provides exactly the centripetal force that keeps the Moon curving around the Earth in a (roughly) circular orbit.

Step 2. If that pull suddenly disappeared entirely, there would be no net force acting on the Moon anymore (ignoring the much weaker pull of the Sun and other bodies for this idealised scenario).

Step 3. By Newton's first law, an object with no net force acting on it continues moving at constant velocity -- so the Moon would simply travel in a straight line, at whatever speed and in whatever direction it happened to be moving at the instant gravity vanished (i.e. tangent to its orbital path at that moment). …

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