Physics > Gravitation > 6.0 Satellites

  Gravitation
    1.0 Newton's law of gravitation
    2.0 Variation of acceleration due to gravity
    3.0 Gravitational field
    4.0 Gravitational potential
    5.0 Gravitational potential energy
    6.0 Satellites
    7.0 Kepler's law of planetary motion
    8.0 Problem solving technique

6.2 Time period of a satellite

It is the time taken by the satellite to complete one revolution around the earth.

Mathematically, it is given by, $${\text{Time period}} = \frac{{{\text{Total distance}}}}{{{\text{Velocity}}}}$$ $$T = \frac{{2\pi r}}{{{v_o}}}$$$$T = \frac{{2\pi r}}{{\sqrt {\frac{{GM}}{r}} }}$$$$T = 2\pi \sqrt {\frac{{{r^3}}}{{GM}}} $$ or $$T = 2\pi \sqrt {\frac{{{r^3}}}{{g{R^2}}}} \quad \left( {{\text{As, }}g = \frac{{GM}}{{{R^2}}}} \right)$$

Note:

1. For a satellite orbiting close to the surface of the earth i.e. $h < < R$.
$$T = 2\pi \sqrt {\frac{{{R^3}}}{{g{R^2}}}} $$ or $$T = 2\pi \sqrt {\frac{R}{g}} $$
Substituting the values we get $T \approx 84.6\,\min $.

2. Time period is also written as,
$$T = 2\pi \sqrt {\frac{{{r^3}}}{{GM}}} $$ or $${T^2} = \frac{{4{\pi ^2}{r^3}}}{{GM}}$$ or $${T^2} \propto {r^3}$$
The above equation is known as Kepler's third law.

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