Two identical spheres are connected by an elastic tether. The tether obeys Hooke's Law for ideal springs. At a particular moment in time, the tether is in a straight line, at its resting length, neither stretching nor contracting. This assembly is then placed into a circular orbit around the Earth, and oriented so that a line drawn from one sphere through the tether and the other sphere points directly at the Earth.

Give a qualitative description of the motion of the two spheres relative to each other over time.

the spheres will stretch and contract the elastic tether equally on both sides of the center of mass of the system ( the midpoint on the tether). this stretching and contracting will occur untill enough energy is spent to change the elastic properties of the tether.

Posted by Jud on 2005-08-11 12:35:06