Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Where along the line is the resultant force zero? Point charge/mass

Two stars of mass M and 4M are at a distance d between their centres.
The resultant gravitational field strength is zero along the line between their centres at a
distance y from the centre of the star of mass M.
What is the value of the ratio ?

I always thought M^2 / 4M^2 square rooted would give the value but it doesn't, help!

Reply 1

Joinedup

Original post by Owneh

Hi - don't mean to jump down your throat but this illustrates a fairly common problem with people posting their interpretation of what a question asks rather than the actual text of the question.

if as seems likely imo this is the same question posted in this recent thread...

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2708597

the actual question is specifically asking for y/d and not any other ratio including y/(d-y) which is the ratio I think many people want it to be asking about.

anyway - help is given on the other thread so I'll let you read that.