A500 kg satellite is in a circular orbit at an altitude of 500 km above the earth's surface. because of air friction, the satellite eventually falls to the earth's surface, where it hits the ground with a speed of 2.00 km/s. how much energy was transformed into internal energy by means of air friction?

The right concept to solve this problem is the conservation of gravitational, kinetic and friction energy made by the body.

Recall that by conservation of energy, potential energy and energy released by friction (heat) must be equal to those given in the initial state. In other words:

Where

= Potential energy at each state

= Kinetic energy at each state

= Heat energy

There is not Kinetic Energy at the beginning therefore:

Where

Gravitational universal constant

Mass of earth

mass of object

Radius of earth

Orbit from earth surface

Velocity

Solving to find the Heat energy friction we have

The quantity of energy that will be transformed into internal energy by means of air friction is

0.11 m/s and 0.28 m/s should be correct