Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-1-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021-resit/9/c/solution

Let be the separation of the Earth and Moon, and let be the spacecraft's distance from the Earth's centre towards the Moon. On , the two gravitational forces oppose each other. Their equality, by Newton's law of universal gravitation, is
Taking the positive square root gives
The centre of mass of the two bodies is at from the Earth's centre. Thus the gravitational field null between two point masses lies a distance
from their centre of mass, on the Moon's side. With , and , so
The point is from the Moon. It is an instantaneous zero of the physical gravitational field, not a co-rotating Lagrange point: a spacecraft remaining fixed relative to the Earth-Moon line would need a nonzero centripetal acceleration. With zero net force it cannot follow that circular co-rotation.

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