Altitude of a satellite

Adapted from Mark Newman’s book “Computational Physics, p. 30

A satellite is launched into a circular orbit around the earth so that it orbits the planet once every $T$ seconds. The altitude $h$ above the Earth’s surface that the satellite must have is:

$ h = \left(\frac{GMT^2}{4\pi^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}} - R$

where $G$ is Newton’s gravitational constant, $M$ is the mass of the Earth, and $R$ is the radius.

a) Write a piece of code which calculates the altitude $h$ (in metres) for a given value of $T$ (in seconds).

b) Use this code to calculate the altitude of satellites that orbit the Earth once a day (a “geosynchronous” orbit) and once every 45 minutes. What can you conclude from this final calculation?

---

Back to Python part one.

---