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It has been many days since I had this question: Despite being able to find out $g(r)$ I am unable to find out $g(t)$. Where $g$ = gravitational acceleration, $r =$ distance apart.

When trying to understand this, in my mind I am thinking of this case: an object is released from rest at a comparable distance from earth, under only the Earth's gravity.

Is $g$ not a function of $t$? But it should be (my notion) so how does $g$ vary with $t$? Question from classical gravitation.

g(r) is a formula we learn at the beginning. But in order to find g(t) I need r(t), which is what? (At least in some cases r varies with t, even though g in the formula of r(t) as 2nd equation keeps changing? Or not?)

Qmechanic
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damnOk
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1 Answers1

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I think you are struggling with the differences between implicit and explicit time dependence, which was well explained here.

It is true that, since $r=r(t)$ and generally $g=g(r)$, we think about $g$ varying on time, but this variation is implicit. Explicitly, we could say that $g\neq g(t)$ and

$$ {\partial g\over \partial t} = 0. $$

The total time derivative, on the other hand, would be not zero, since

$$ {dg\over dt} = {dr\over dt}{dg\over dr} $$

And the two quantities on the r.h.s. are generally not zero. We have

$$ g(r) = {GM\over r^2} \rightarrow {dg\over dr} = {-2GM\over r^3} = -\frac 2r g(r) $$

So we can write

$$ {dg\over dt} = -\frac 2r {dr\over dt} g(r) $$

There is no scape but to calculate $r(t)$ explicitly and get the derivative, which people already explained in the comments that it is a hard task. What you can do is to consider some approximations for $r(t)$, but I'm not sure how much insightful it can be, since at the end you only have an implicit time dependence. In fact, the expression above will only give you $g(r(t))$ again, and it could only be thought as a explicit function of time if we substitute $r$ by $r(t)$ in the expression of $g$ and write $g(t) \equiv g(r(t))$.


Consider for example that for some reason, a body not following a Keplerian orbit have constant negative radial velocity ${dr\over dt} = - C$ for $C>0$ (it is going to the center of earth). Then $r(t) = r_0 - Ct$ and we have

$$ {dg\over dt} = {2C\over r_0 - Ct} g \rightarrow \ln g = -2\ln(r_0-Ct) + K\rightarrow g(t) = {K\over (r_0 -Ct)^2} $$

Which is the same result we get by inserting $r(t)$ directly in the expression of $g(r)$ and setting the constant $K=GM$.

Ruffolo
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