Prelims 2011 · archive
EasyAn artificial satellite orbiting around the Earth does not fall down. This is so because the attraction of Earth_______
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) Provides the necessary acceleration for its motion
Earth's gravity does not vanish at a satellite's height. It acts as the inward pull that keeps bending the satellite's straight-line path into a curve around the Earth. That pull supplies the acceleration the circular or elliptical motion needs, so the satellite keeps falling around the Earth instead of falling onto it.
- ✗ (a) Gravity weakens with distance but never becomes zero. At satellite heights it is still strong, and it is the force that holds the satellite in orbit.
- ✗ (b) The Moon's pull on a nearby satellite is very small next to Earth's pull. Earth's gravity is not cancelled by it, and if it were cancelled the satellite would fly off in a straight line.
- ✗ (c) A force produces acceleration, a change in velocity. It does not supply speed itself. The satellite's orbital speed comes from the rocket that launched it. In a circular orbit, gravity only changes the direction of that velocity.
- ✓ (d) In circular motion the velocity keeps changing direction, so the motion is accelerated. The inward acceleration comes from Earth's gravitational attraction, which pulls the satellite back from its straight-line path.
Remember · A satellite is in continuous free fall around the Earth. Gravity gives the centripetal acceleration, while the speed comes from the launch. Gravity is neither absent nor cancelled.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Exploration, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NASA Space Place – What Is an Orbit? ↗ “With gravity, it is pulled back toward Earth. A constant tug-of-war takes place between the satellite's tendency to move in a straight line, or momentum, and the tug of gravity pulling the satellite back.”
- NCERT Class 9 · Exploration, Chapter 4 “In uniform circular motion, the motion of the object is accelerated because the direction of its velocity continuously changes.”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2011, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·