Group Members: ______________________________________________________________________

1. Gravity

Reference: Hibbeler - Chapter 1

Individual Prep Assignment:

1. Review Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.

2. Review Newton’s Law of Gravitational Attraction.
3. Relationship between the mass of a body and its weight on the Earth’s surface.

Team Assignment:

1. A 1-kg mass weighs 9.81 N of the surface of the Earth. Use Newton’s Law of Gravitational Attraction
3
to solve for the mass of the Earth. Assume the Earth’s radius equals 6.378 x 10 km and the
-12 3 2
universal constant of gravitation (G) equals 66.73 x 10 m /(kg·s ).

2. The moon has a mass of 7.349×1022 kg and roughly 0.3844 Gm from the Earth’s surface. What force
does the moon exert on a 10 Mg whale near the surface of the ocean?

Personal Reflection of Activity: If you wanted to “lose” weight, would you take yourself and your scale to
Mount McKinley or the Grand Canyon? Why?