Three identical spheres of mass m are placed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle of length a. When released, they interact only through gravitational force and collide after a time T = 4 seconds. If the sides of the triangle are increased to length 2a and also the masses of the spheres are made 2 m, then they will collide after seconds.
A satellite of mass 1000 kg is launched to revolve around the earth in an orbit at a height of 270 km from the earth's surface. Kinetic energy of the satellite in this orbit is 1010 J. (Mass of earth = 6 1024 kg, Radius of earth = 6.4 106 m, Gravitational constant = 6.67 10-11 N m2 kg-2)