Each Voyager spacecraft was accelerated toward escape speed from the Sun by the gravitational force exerted by Jupiter on the spacecraft. (a) Is the gravitational force a conservative or a nonconservative force?

Question

Zayden Chapman

Physics

21 March, 17:53

Each Voyager spacecraft was accelerated toward escape speed from the Sun by the gravitational force exerted by Jupiter on the spacecraft. (a) Is the gravitational force a conservative or a nonconservative force?

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Tucker Coleman · Answer 1

For the force to be conservative one, the condition is that the curl of the force must be zero. In other words, the work done by the force is path independent or does not depend upon the path.

Gravitational force is a central force and it does not depend on the path followed.