The average height of the satellite above the Earth’s surface is 900 km. Determine the speed of its movement.

Given:

R = 900 kilometers = 900,000 meters – the average height of the satellite below the Earth’s surface;

g = 10 m / s ^ 2 – acceleration of gravity.

It is required to determine v (m / s) – the speed of the satellite.

The satellite is in a state of free fall to Earth. This means that the centripetal acceleration of the satellite will be equal to the acceleration of gravity. Then:

v = (g * R) ^ 0.5 = (10 * 900,000) ^ 0.5 = 9,000,000 ^ 0.5 = 3000 m / s = 3 km / s.

Answer: the satellite’s speed is 3000 meters per second (3 km / s).