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JEE Advanced 2024 Paper 1 · Physics · Gravitation · hard

A spacecraft moves in a circular orbit of radius r0 around a planet, with period T0. A short thruster burn along its direction of motion increases…

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A spacecraft moves in a circular orbit of radius r0r_0 around a planet, with period T0T_0. A short thruster burn along its direction of motion increases its speed by the factor 7/4\sqrt{7/4}. The burn is short enough to be treated as instantaneous. Afterwards the spacecraft follows an elliptical orbit with the burn point as its closest approach. The time taken to go from this point to the farthest point of the ellipse, in units of T0T_0, is
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Answer: 4

Let v02=GM/r0v_0^2=GM/r_0. After the burn the speed at perigee is vp2=74v02v_p^2=\tfrac74v_0^2. Energy conservation with angular momentum conservation (vpr0=varav_pr_0=v_ar_a) gives the vis-viva relation at perigee: vp2=2GM rar0(r0+ra)v_p^2=\dfrac{2GM\,r_a}{r_0(r_0+r_a)}, i.e. 74=2rar0+ra\dfrac74=\dfrac{2r_a}{r_0+r_a}, so 74r0=14ra\tfrac74r_0=\tfrac14r_a and ra=7r0r_a=7r_0. The semi-major axis is a=r0+7r02=4r0a=\dfrac{r_0+7r_0}{2}=4r_0. By Kepler's third law T2∝a3T^2\propto a^3: T=T0(4r0r0)3/2=8T0T=T_0\left(\dfrac{4r_0}{r_0}\right)^{3/2}=8T_0. Perigee to apogee is exactly half of a period: t=4T0t=4T_0. Using a=ra=7r0a=r_a=7r_0 or a=r0a=r_0 is a typical slip. Kepler's second law is not needed: the time from perigee to apogee is half the period for any eccentricity, so only the semi-major axis matters.
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