The Stability of an Orbit

The earth can be an equilibrium in an orbit but we still have to answer the question of whether that's stable or unstable. There are two effective forces to consider there is gravity pulling you in and then there's this centripetal force pushing you out so there is the possibility to have a balance there. When those two things balance then you have an orbit where your radius is basically constant again just think about in terms of circular orbits for now how is that even possible if all you have is a force towards the center well it's true you only have one force but it's a little bit more complicated than thatthere's another apparent force because we're talking about circular motion which is not inert