Question

"Answer the following:
(a) You can shield a charge from electrical forces by putting it inside a hollow conductor. Can you shield a body from the gravitational influence of nearby matter by putting it inside a hollow sphere or by some other means?
(b) An astronaut inside a small space ship orbiting around the earth cannot detect gravity. If the space station orbiting around the earth has a large size, can he hope to detect gravity?
(c) If you compare the gravitational force on the earth due to the sun to that due to the moon, you would find that the Sun’s pull is greater than the moon’s pull. (You can check this yourself using the data available in the succeeding exercises). However, the tidal effect of the moon’s pull is greater than the tidal effect of sun. Why?" Question 8.1 Gravitation

Answer 1

(A) naah !! any body can't be shield from gravitational influence of nearby matter by putting it inside a hollow sphere bcoz Gravitational forces doesn't depend upon the nature of the intervening medium . electrical forces depends upon the nature of the intervening medium.

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(B) yeah !! An astronaut can hope to detect the gravity if spaceship is very large . becoz this condition the magnitude of the gravity of the spaceship in this situation may become measurable .

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(C) Tidal effect is inversely proportional to cube of the distance .

We know,
Eath - moon distance is small as compared to the Earth - sun distance .
So, Tidal effect of Moon is greater then the Tidal effect of the sun.