Question

A ball dropped from a spacecraft is revolving around the earth at a height of 120km. What will happen to the ball?

(a) It will fall down to the earth gradually

(b) It will go very far in the space

(c) It will continue to move with the same speed along the original orbit of the spacecraft

(d) It will move with the same speed, tangentially to the spacecraft

I got this question in an internship interview.

My enquiry is from Weight of a Body in portion Mechanical Properties of Solids of Engineering Physics I

Answer 1

Right choice is (c) It will continue to move with the same speed along the original orbit of the spacecraft

To explain I would say: As no external torque is being applied, by the law of conservation of angular momentum, the ball will continue to move with the same angular velocity along the original orbit of the spacecraft.