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IDS 3 11C
Mrs. Cybulski
People know that humans can walk around on earth because of gravity. Gravity
is what holds everything down. But what about in space? Astronauts float around in
outer space and there is no force that holds them down. NASA's satellites float around
in space too. So, is there gravity in space? If so, how much? How much gravity do
artificial satellites experience? The researchers have already done the hard work to find
Table 1
Satellites' Information
Satellite Mass Average Distance Force of Gravity Acceleration Percent of
(kg) from Earth (km) (N) (m/s2) 'g'
Table 1 shows the information of the satellites such as their masses and
distances from earth. The table also shows the calculated force of gravity between the
earth and the satellites, the acceleration due to gravity for each of the satellites, and the
percent of gravity.
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The researchers first created a table (see Table 1) and then filled it in with
necessary information such as the mass of the satellites. The researchers then found
the average distance between the satellites and earth through internet research. Some
of the distances could not be found and were calculated with different kinds of
distances.
The satellites in orbit have two distances that the researchers used: the perigee
and the apogee. The perigee, or the perihelion, is the closest distance the satellite is to
the earth. The apogee, or the aphelion, is the farthest distance the satellite is away from
the earth. These distances are appropriate to use since the orbits of the satellites are
elliptical, meaning they orbit the earth unevenly and sometimes they are closer while
other times they are farther. Figure 1 shows an example of how to calculate the average
distance between the satellite ISS and earth using the perihelion and the aphelion.
Figure 1. Sample Calculation for the Average Distance between the ISS and Earth
The next step was to calculate the force of earths gravity on the satellites. To do
shown in Figure 2.
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The universal gravitational constant is used to find the force of gravity between
Cavendish calculated the universal gravitational constant, and it is used in the formula
Figure 3. Equation for Finding the Force of Gravity between Two Masses
In the equation shown in Figure 3, F(g) stands for the force of gravity between
two masses. The distance between the two objects, r, the masses of the two objects,
m1 and m2, and the universal gravitational constant, G, are used in the equation to find
F(g). This formula was used to find the force of gravity between the satellites and the
the first mass, the mass of the earth, and the second mass, the mass of the satellite.
That part is then divided by the radius, which is squared, and in this case, the radius
would be the average distance between the satellites and earth. Figure 4 shows a
sample calculation of the force of gravity between the moon and the earth.
Choudhury-Mubashira-Saraza 5
Figure 4. Sample Calculation of the Force of Gravity between the Moon and Earth
The next step was to calculate the satellites accelerations due to gravity. The
researchers knew that force was the product of mass and acceleration. The researchers
had a force and a mass, so it would be simple to calculate acceleration using the force
formula. The force formula was rearranged to solve for acceleration, as seen in figure 5.
The next step was to plug in the numbers and solve for acceleration. Figure 6 shows a
Figure 6. Sample Calculation of the Acceleration Due to Gravity for the Moon
Choudhury-Mubashira-Saraza 6
The final calculation the researchers did was the percent of acceleration due to
gravity on earth, or as seen in Table 1, percent of 'g'. To calculate this percentage, the
researchers just had to divide the acceleration due to gravity that was calculated by the
amount of gravity on earth. That quotient was then multiplied by 100 to turn it into a
percent. Figure 7 shows a sample calculation of the acceleration of the moon due to
gravity on earth.
Figure 7. Sample Calculation of the Percent of the Moons Acceleration Due to Gravity
on Earth
The researchers then checked with the NASA website and their instructor to
make sure their calculations were correct. Once that was confirmed, the researchers
continued. Their next step was to create a scatter plot of the satellites to see if there
was a linear relationship between distance and the satellites accelerations due to
The data shown in Figure 8 shows the satellites distances from earth and their
tell that the data was fairly linear. As the distance increased, the acceleration
decreased. After the researchers evaluated the scatter plot of the data, the assumptions
for a linear regression test were evaluated. The researchers decided to use the TI-
linear relationship between the distances and accelerations of the satellites. The
correlation coefficient was calculated by using the sums derived from the averages and
standard deviations of x and y and the quotient of one and the quantity of the number
of data points. The correlation coefficient was then squared to find a value of 0.9992.
This value shows how much of the variance in either variable is explained by the other
Choudhury-Mubashira-Saraza 8
variable. The correlation coefficient squared tells the readers that 99.92% of the points
are explained by each other. In other words, almost 100% of the points are connected to
each other.
Since the data appeared to be linear, the researchers decided to run a linear
regression test. The researchers created two hypotheses as seen in Figure 9. The null
hypothesis is beta equals zero because that would mean the slope is zero and there is
no correlation between x and y. In the scatter plot, the researchers believed the slope to
be negative, therefore they created an alternative hypothesis that beta is less than zero.
Before the test could be conducted, though, the assumptions must be met. The
assumptions for a linear regression test were evaluated. The first assumption tested
was whether for all or any fixed value of x, the value for y varies in accordance to a
normal distribution. As shown in the histogram in Figure 11, the residuals varied
was that the repeated responses of y are independent of each other. There were no
that the mean response has a straight-line relationship with x. This assumption was
met because the scatter plot shows that the relationship between the mean of y and
Choudhury-Mubashira-Saraza 9
the "x" value was linear. The fourth assumption is that alpha and beta are unknown
parameters. The researchers did not know the values for either parameter, therefore
validating that assumption. The final assumption is that the standard deviation of y, or
sigma, is the same for all values of x. This assumption was validated by conducting a
Figure 12, to run the test. In the equation, b is the slope from the least squares
regression line and SEb is the standard error of the least squares slope. The standard
error of the least squares slope can be rewritten as the standard error over the sum of
To perform the test the researchers needed to find the standard error about the
least squares regression line, which can be calculated by using the equation in figure
Choudhury-Mubashira-Saraza 10
13. The researchers used their TI-nspires to calculate the standard error and it came out
to be 0.0130.
Figure 13. Equation for the Standard Error About the Least Squares Regression Line
The researchers used this value in their t test, as seen in Figure 12 and calculated a t
statistic of -100.4526 and a p-value of 5.3*10 -14. The researchers rejected the null
hypothesis because the p-value was much lower than the accepted alpha level of 0.05.
There is significant evidence that the slope is negative. There is almost no chance of
getting the same results the researchers did if the null hypothesis was true.
and a b value of -0.0025, which would be the slope. Using this information, the
researchers discovered the best fitting line for their graph. Figure 14 shows the graph
Figure 14. Scatter Plot of First Ten Satellites with Regression Line
As the researchers believed in the beginning, when they created the scatter plot, the
data was fairly linear. They believed that the line would be a strong negative line and the
data proved them to be correct. They also created a residual plot to make sure that the
least squares regression line fits the data well. The graph is seen in Figure 15 and it
proves the researchers' claims even more. There is an even number of points both
above and below the zero line. To further prove their claims, the researchers decided to
interval. They used the b value that they already found, which was -0.0025. To find t*,
the researchers found the degrees of freedom (8), which was on less than the number
of points, and looked for the value in Table C under 95%. The standard error of the least
The confidence interval for the regression slope was calculated to be between -0.0025
and -0.0024. This means that the researchers are 95% confident that the true
Through this research, the researchers have found that there is gravity in space.
Through their scatter plots and graphs, they have understood that as the distance
increases the acceleration due to gravity decreases, but it never was zero. This means
that all the satellites in space have acceleration due to gravity. However small it may be,
it is still there. The percentages due to earth's gravity is high for the satellites, but it is
not 100% due to Earth's gravity further proving that there is gravity in space. Although,
the researchers began to wonder why the data was so uniform. They knew that they
only used satellites that orbited Earth and wondered if that had an effect on their
regression model. They decided to see what effect other objects in space may have on
it.
The researchers proceeded to create a scatter plot with all of the satellites and
the moon and galaxy 15. The scatter plot can be seen in Figure 17. The researchers
saw that the data did not look linear, but it did look negative.
Figure 17. Scatter Plot of All Satellites with the Moon and Galaxy 15
To test the hypotheses of linear relationship, several steps must be taken. The
researchers took the first step and created a scatter plot. It did not look very linear. The
performed. In Figure 18, the histogram shows that the data is not uniform.
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Figure 18. Histogram for All Satellites and the Moon and Galaxy 15
There was one major outlier in the histogram of residuals. The data was
beginning to prove to the researchers that there was no linear relationship. The
create a plot of residuals. Figure 19 shows the plot of residuals for all the satellites with
Figure 19. Residual Plot for All Satellites and the Moon and Galaxy 15
The residual plot looked very uneven. There was only one point below the zero
line, while the other 12 were above. There was not a uniform spread of data. This
further proved that there is no linear relationship. The researchers looked at the scatter
plot once more and ran a few regression tests on their TI-nspire. To the researchers, the
best fitting line seemed to be the power regression, which is seen in Figure 20.
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Figure 20. Regression Line for all 12 Objects in Space with Equation
The power equation fit the data the best. It went through most of the points. What
is unique about this model is that it has two asymptotes: y = zero and x = zero. This
means that the acceleration cannot be zero and the distance cannot be zero either. This
makes sense because anything that is not the earth has to be some distance greater
than 0 km away from earth and also because everything in space accelerates at an
To answer the original question, the researchers concluded that there is gravity in
space because the percentage of acceleration due to gravity on earth is not 100%,
therefore, there is other gravity in space. Everything has a gravitational force, no matter
how small. Satellites experience roughly 80 to 95% of Earth's gravity out in space.
When these satellites are out in space, they experience constant freefall at the same
rate as the spacecraft. Since there is no air, mass does not matter, so both the object
and the satellite are falling at the same acceleration and it seems like the objects are
floating. The sun's gravity reaches very far out and other stars' gravity holds in things in
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