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A skydiver jumps from an aeroplane and falls downward because of the Earth's gravitational pull.Identify what happens to the Earth in response to the skydiver.It moves up, but only an extremely small distance because of its much larger massIt moves up an equal distance to meet the skydiver, however we don't notice thisIt doesn't move, because it has a fixed location in spaceIt doesn't move, because it is not gravitationally attracted to the skydiver

Question

A skydiver jumps from an aeroplane and falls downward because of the Earth's gravitational pull.Identify what happens to the Earth in response to the skydiver.It moves up, but only an extremely small distance because of its much larger massIt moves up an equal distance to meet the skydiver, however we don't notice thisIt doesn't move, because it has a fixed location in spaceIt doesn't move, because it is not gravitationally attracted to the skydiver

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Solution

The Earth moves up, but only an extremely small distance because of its much larger mass. This is due to Newton's third law of motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, when the skydiver jumps off the plane and falls towards the Earth due to gravity, the Earth also moves an extremely small amount towards the skydiver. However, because the Earth's mass is so much larger, the movement is negligible and not noticeable.

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