Thursday, 5 November 2009

the sun - One year on the sun

I hope you mean if a sun was 'rotating around' another sun, how long it would take to complete a revolution.



There is this thought process. Since they both have equal mass, they would definitely rotate around their center of mass. So now, many factors come into the picture.



  • Distance: How far they are from each other.

  • Mass: Mass of sun, i.e. their individual masses (same in this case of course)

Using the mass and distance we can make some basic calculations using $F = G*frac{M^2}{d^2}$, where $M$ is the mass of sun and $d$ is the distance of separation between the two 'suns'. Keeping in mind of the fact they must obviously be rotating about their center of mass which is half-way in this case, we can use $a = frac{v^2}{r}$ accordingly and get to the solution you are seeking.



So, depending on the above factors (there may be few more), we may find the linear or angular velocity with which they are rotating around their center of mass, and accordingly we can calculate the period of rotation.

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