Question

What is the magnitude of the gravitational force a 67.5 kg person would experience while standing on the surface of the planet Mars?

Mars has a mass of 6.34 x 10^23 kg and has a radius of 3.43 x 10^6 m.

Answer 1

Newton's law of gravitation states that the gravitational force between two objects is given by `F=G(m_1m_2)/r^2`, where G is the gravitational constant (`~~6.67*10^-11` m`""^3`kg`""^-1`s`""^-2`), `m_1` and `m_2` are the mass of the objects, and `r` is the distance between them.

We just need to substitute the values given to us in the question to get `F=6.67*10^-11*(67.5*6.34*10^23)/(3.43*10^6)^2~~243` N (to three significant places).