3- Newton's law of gravity

Galileo Galilei (1564-1641)

Using a telescope he made, Galileo observed: Moons of Jupiter. Phases of Venus. His findings supported a Copernican model. He spent the end of his life under house arrest for his beliefs.

Johannes Kepler German astronomer (15711630)

Kepler has try to deduce a mathematical model for the motion of the planets.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727).

 " Every particle in the Universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them ".

If the particles have masses m1 and m2 and are separated by a distance r, the magnitude of this gravitational force is: m2 m1 r :

Fg

m1 m2 G 2 r

 where G is a universal constant called the universal gravitational constant which has been measured experimentally. The value of G depends on the system of units used, its value in SI units is: . G G :

G = 6.672 x 10-11 N. m2 / kg2

 The force law is an: inverse-square law because the magnitude of the force varies as the inverse square of the separation of the particles.

 We can express this force in vector form by defining a unit vector r12

 Because this unit vector is in the direction of the displacement vector r12 directed from m1 to m2, the force exerted on m2, by m1 is : F21 = - (G ( m1 m2 ) / r122 ) r12

 Likewise, by Newton's third law the force exerted on m1 by m2, designated F12, is equal in magnitude to F21 and in the opposite direction.

 That is these forces form an actionreaction pair

F12 = F21

 the gravitational force exerted by a finite-size, spherically symmetric mass distribution on a particle outside the sphere is the same as if the entire mass of the sphere were concentrated at its center

 For example, the force exerted by the Earth on a particle of mass m at the Earth's surface has the magnitude Fg = G ( mE m ) / RE2 mE is the Earth's mass and RE is the Earth's radius

 This force is directed toward the center of the Earth

 At points inside the earth: We would find that the force decreases as we approach the center. Exactly at the center the gravitational force on a body would be zero.

4-Measurement of the gravitational constant The universal gravitational constant, G, was measured by Henry Cavendish in 1798

5- Weight and gravitational force

If g is the magnitude of the free-fall acceleration, and since the force on a freely falling body of mass m near the surface of the Earth is given by F = m g, we can equate m g = G ( mE m / RE2 )

G mE 2 RE

Using the facts that g = 9.80 m/s2 at the Earth's surface and RE = 6.38 x 10)6( m, we find that mE = 5.98 x 10)24( kg.

 From this result, the average density of the Earth is calculated to be : E = mE / VE = mE / ( 4/3 RE3 ) = 5.98 x 10 24 / ( 4/3 6.38 x 106 m )3 = 5500 kg/m3 = 5.5 g/cm3

 Since this value is higher than the density of most rocks at the Earth's surface (density of granite = 3 g/cm3), we conclude that the inner core of the Earth has a density much higher than the average value. .

 The magnitude of the gravitational force acting on this mass is:

Fg = G ( ME m / r2 ) = G ( ME m / ( RE + h )2 )

 If the body is in free-fall, then Fg = mg' and we see that g', the freefall acceleration experienced by an object at the altitude h, is g' = G mE / r2 = G mE / ( RE + h ) 2

 Thus, it follows that g' decreases with increasing altitude . Since the true weight of an object is mg , we see that as r , the true weight approaches zero.

6- The Gravitational Field

When a particle of mass m is placed at a point where the field is the vector g, the particle experiences a force Fg = m g.

 the gravitational field is defined by: g = Fg / m

 consider an object of mass m near the Earth's surface. The gravitational force on the object is directed toward the center of the Earth and has a magnitude (m g).

 Since the gravitational force on the object has a magnitude : (G mE m) / r2

field g is

Fg m

G mE 2 r

where r is a unit vector pointing radially outward from the Earth, and the minus sign indicates that the field points toward the center of the Earth and is always opposite to r

 We have used the same symbol g for gravitational field magnitude that we used earlier for the acceleration of free fall. The units of the two quantities are the same .

Example
A ring-shaped body with radius a has total mass M. Find the gravitational field at point p, at a distance x from the center of the ring, along the line through the center and perpendicular to the plane of the ring.

 We imagine the ring as being divided into small segments s, each with mass M. At point P each segment produces a gravitational field g with magnitude.

 g = )G M( / r2 = )G M( / )x2 + a2) The component of this field along the xaxis is given by : gx = - g cos = - G M . x x2 + a2 (x2 + a2) = - G M x (x2 + a2)3/2

 we simply sum all the M 's. This sum is equal to the total mass M.

gx

GMx (x a )
2 2 3 2

7-Gravitatiuonal Potential energy

we know that the earth's gravitational force on a body of mass m, at any point outside the earth, is given by w = fg = (G m mE ) / r2

We compute the work Wgrav done by the gravitational force when r changes from r1 to r2
r2

Wgrav

r1

Fr dr

Thus Wgrav is given by:

r2

Wgrav

G m mE

r1

dr 2 r

G m mE r2

G m mE r1

 Wgrav = U1 - U2 where U1 and U2 are the potential energies of positions 1 and 2 . So Comparing this with the eq. of Wgrav gives:

G m mE U r

8- Kepler's laws
The complete analysis is summarized in three statements, known as Kepler's laws:

 l. All planets move in elliptical orbits with

the Sun at one of the focal points. .

 2. The radius vector drawn from the Sun

to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals. .

 3. The square of the orbital period of any planet is proportional the cube of the semi major axis of the elliptical orbit. .