CHAPTER IV

THE CONSTANTS OF CHANGE

Kepler lived from 1571 to 1630, during the time of discovery of the telescope. Kepler was
one of the few vocal supporters of Galileo's discoveries and the Copernican system of
planets orbiting the Sun instead of the Earth (basically provided the facts that proofed the
theory).

Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion can be stated as follows:

1. All planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, having the Sun as one of the
foci.
2. A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal
lengths of time.
3. The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly
proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.

Knowledge of these laws, especially the second (the law of areas), proved crucial
to Isaac Newton in 1684–85, when he formulated his famous law of
gravitation between Earth and the Moon and between the Sun and the planets,
postulated by him to have validity for all objects anywhere in the universe.

Newton showed that the motion of bodies subject to central gravitational force need
not always follow the elliptical orbits specified by the first law of Kepler but can take
paths defined by other, open conic curves; the motion can be in parabolic or hyperbolic
orbits, depending on the total energy of the body. Thus, an object of sufficient energy—
e.g., a comet can enter the solar system and leave again without returning. From Kepler’s
second law, it may be observed further that the angular momentum of any planet about
an axis through the Sun and perpendicular to the orbital plane is also unchanging.

Motion is the change in position of an object with respect to its surroundings in a given
interval of time. It is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity,
acceleration and speed.

 If the position of an object is not changing with respect to a given frame of reference
(reference point), the object is said to be at rest, motionless, immobile, stationary,
or to have constant (time-invariant) position with reference to its surroundings.
 An object's motion cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force. As there is
no absolute frame of reference, absolute motion cannot be determined. Thus,
everything in the universe can be considered to be moving.
  Motion applies to various physical systems: to objects, bodies, matter particles,
matter fields, radiation, radiation fields, radiation particles, curvature and space-
time. One can also speak of motion of images, shapes and boundaries. So, the
term motion, in general, signifies a continuous change in the configuration of a
physical system in space. For example, one can talk about motion of a wave or
about motion of a quantum particle, where the configuration consists of
probabilities of occupying specific positions.

Momentum is a quantity which is used for measuring the motion of an object. An

object's momentum is directly related to the object's mass and velocity, and the total
momentum of all objects in an isolated system (one not affected by external forces) does
not change with time, as described by the law of conservation of momentum.

Height is the measurement of someone or something from head to foot or from base to
top.

Velocity is a measure of how fast something moves in a particular direction.

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity of an object with respect to time.

Flux is the presence of a force field in a specified physical medium, or the flow of energy
through a surface.

Magnitude generally refers to distance or quantity. In relation to movement, magnitude

refers to the size of an object or its speed while traveling.

A scalar is a number that only has a magnitude or an amount.

Ex: (6 bananas, 23.5 kilograms, 18 meters/second, 67 kilometers)

A vector is a number that has a magnitude and a direction.

Ex: (18 meters/second West, 67 kilometers Up, 12 miles at an angle of 35 degrees)

Mass is the actual amount of material contained in a body and is measured in kg, gm,
etc. mass is independent of everything

Weight is the force exerted by the gravity on that object mg. weight is different on the
earth, moon, etc.

An ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the
curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. As such, it
generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in which the two focal points are
the same. The elongation of an ellipse is measured by its eccentricity e, a number ranging
from e = 0 (the limiting case of a circle) to e = 1 (the limiting case of infinite elongation, no
longer an ellipse but a parabola).
Newton's Laws and Kepler's Laws
Outline on how Kepler's Laws are implied by those of Newton and use Newton's Laws to
supply corrections to Kepler's Laws:

1. Since the planets move on ellipses (Kepler's 1st Law), they are continually
accelerating. As we have also noted above, this implies a force acting continuously
on the planets.
2. Because the planet Sun line sweeps out equal areas in equal times (Kepler's 2nd
Law), it is possible to show that the force must be directed toward the Sun from
the planet.
3. From Kepler's 1st Law the orbit is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus; from
Newton's laws it can be shown that this means that the magnitude of the force
must vary as one over the square of the distance between the planet and the Sun.
4. Kepler's 3rd Law and Newton's 3rd Law imply that the force must be proportional
to the product of the masses for the planet and the Sun.

Thus, Kepler's laws and Newton's laws taken together imply that the force that holds the
planets in their orbits by continuously changing the planet's velocity so that it follows an
elliptical path is (1) directed toward the Sun from the planet, (2) is proportional to the
product of masses for the Sun and planet, and (3) is inversely proportional to the square
of the planet-Sun separation. This is precisely the form of the gravitational force, with the
universal gravitational constant G as the constant of proportionality.

Thus, Newton's laws of motion, with a gravitational force used in the 2nd Law, imply
Kepler's Laws, and the planets obey the same laws of motion as objects on the surface
of the Earth.

Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion

While Copernicus rightly observed that the planets

revolve around the Sun, it was Kepler who correctly
defined their orbits. At the age of 27, Kepler became the
assistant of a wealthy astronomer, Tycho Brahe, who
asked him to define the orbit of Mars. Brahe had
collected a lifetime of astronomical observations, which,
on his death, passed into Kepler’s hands. (Brahe, who
had his own Earth-centered model of the Universe,
withheld the bulk of his observations from Kepler at least in part because he did not want
Kepler to use them to prove Copernican theory correct.) Using these observations, Kepler
found that the orbits of the planets followed three laws.
Brahe believed in a model of the Universe with the Sun (rayed disk) orbiting the Earth
(black dot), but the other planets (symbols) orbiting the Sun. In an attempt to prove his
theory, Brahe compiled extensive astronomical records, which Kepler eventually used to
prove heliocentrism and to calculate the orbital laws. [Adapted from Tycho
Brahe, Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata (“Introductory exercises toward the
restoration of astronomy.”)]

Like many philosophers of his era, Kepler had a mystical belief that the circle was the
Universe’s perfect shape, and that as a manifestation of Divine order, the planets’ orbits
must be circular. For many years, he struggled to make Brahe’s observations of the
motions of Mars match up with a circular orbit.

Eventually, however, Kepler noticed that an imaginary line drawn from a planet to the Sun
swept out an equal area of space in equal times, regardless of where the planet was in
its orbit. If you draw a triangle out from the Sun to a planet’s position at one point in time
and its position at a fixed time later—say, 5 hours, or 2 days—the area of that triangle is
always the same, anywhere in the orbit. For all these triangles to have the same area, the
planet must move more quickly when it is near the Sun, but more slowly when it is farthest
from the Sun.

This discovery (which became Kepler’s second law of

orbital motion) led to the realization of what became
Kepler’s first law: that the planets move in an ellipse (a
squashed circle) with the Sun at one focus point, offset
from the center.

Through Brahe’s astronomical measurements and

Kepler’s own drawings of the geometrical relationship
between the Sun and Mars in various parts of the
planet’s orbit, Kepler discovered that planets moved faster when they were closer to the
Sun. From this realization, he concluded that the orbit of Mars was elliptical, not circular.
[Adapted from Johannes Kepler, Epitome astronomia Copernicanae (“Epitome of
Copernican Astronomy.”)]

Kepler’s third law shows that there is a precise mathematical relationship between a
planet’s distance from the Sun and the amount of time it takes revolve around the Sun. It
was this law that inspired Newton, who came up with three laws of his own to explain why
the planets move as they do.

Newton’s Laws of Motion

If Kepler’s laws define the motion of the planets, Newton’s laws define motion. Thinking
on Kepler’s laws, Newton realized that all motion, whether it was the orbit of the Moon
around the Earth or an apple falling from a tree, followed the same basic principles. “To
the same natural effects,” he wrote, “we must, as far as possible, assign the same
causes.” Previous Aristotelian thinking, physicist Stephen Hawking has written, assigned
different causes to different types of motion. By unifying all motion, Newton shifted the
scientific perspective to a search for large, unifying patterns in nature. Newton outlined
his laws in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (“Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy,”) published in 1687.

1. Everybody perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless
it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon.

There is no mathematical formula given for the newton's first law, it states
only that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it,
and a body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a straight
line unless acted upon by an outside force. The law is regularly summed up
in one word: inertia: tendency of an object to resist in motion.
*objects with a greater mass have greater inertia

Taking a Look at Inertia Examples

 One's body movement to the side when a car makes a sharp turn.
 Tightening of seat belts in a car when it stops quickly.
 A ball rolling down a hill will continue to roll unless friction or another force stops it.
 Men in space find it more difficult to stop moving because of a lack of gravity acting against
them.
 If pulled quickly, a tablecloth can be removed from underneath of dishes. The dishes have
the tendency to remain still as long as the friction from the movement of the tablecloth is not
too great.
 Shaking a bottle of ketchup. When bringing the bottom down, the suddenly stopping it, inertia
is what causes the ketchup to come out of the bottle.
 When playing football, a player is tackled, and his head hits the ground. The impact stops his
skull, but his brain continues to move and hit the inside of his skull. His brain is showing
inertia.
 If one drove a car directly into a brick wall, the car would stop because of the force exerted
upon it by the wall. However, the driver requires a force to stop his body from moving, such
as a seatbelt, otherwise inertia will cause his body to continue moving at the original speed
until his body is acted upon by some force.
 Hovercraft are vehicles that can be a challenge to manipulate because, unlike cars, they do
not have the same level of friction, so inertia causes the Hovercraft to want to continue in its
same direction without stopping or turning.
 Abruptly stopping a cart with an object on top causes the object on top to fall off. Inertia
causes this by making the object want to continue moving in the direction that it was.
 If a stopped car is hit by a moving car from behind, the passengers inside may
experience whiplash as a result of the body moving forward but the head lagging behind. The
head is experiencing inertia.
 If a car is moving forward it will continue to move forward unless friction or the brakes interfere
with its movement.
 When a baseball is thrown it will continue to move forward until acted upon by gravity. The
greater the force of the throw, the harder it is for gravity to act upon it.
 A hockey puck will continue to slide across ice until acted upon by an outside force.
 A balloon in a car will appear to move when the car moves forward, but the balloon is actually
attempting to stay in the place it was, it is only the car that is moving.
 When a car is abruptly accelerated, drivers and passengers may feel as though their bodies
are moving backward. In reality, inertia is making the body want to stay in place as the car
moves forward.
 If an index card is placed on top of a glass with a penny on top of it, the index card can be
quickly removed while the penny falls straight into the glass, as the penny is demonstrating
inertia.
 If you jump from a car of bus that is moving, your body is still moving in the direction of the
vehicle. When your feet hit the ground, the grounds act on your feet and they stop moving.
 You will fall because the upper part of your body didn't stop and you will fall in the direction
you were moving.
 When you stir coffee or tea and stop, the swirling motion continues due to inertia.
 Objects that establish orbit around the earth, like satellites, continue on their trajectory due to
inertia.
 Inertia of rest is an object staying where it is placed, and it will stay there until you or
something else moves it.
 If you throw a rock straight up, it will not vary from its direction. This is an example of inertia
of direction.
 Inertia enables ice skaters to glide on the ice in a straight line.
 If the wind is blowing, a tree's branches are moving. A piece of ripe fruit that falls from the
tree will fall in the direction the wind is moving because of inertia.
 When peddling a bicycle, if you stop pedaling, the bike continues going until friction or gravity
slows it down.
 When pulling a Band-Aid off, it is better to pull it fast. Your skin will remain at rest due to
inertia and the force pulls the Band-Aid off.
 A car that is moving will continue even if you switch the engine off.
 If a ball is on a slanted surface and you let go, gravity will make it roll down the slope. It has
inertia and if there is a level area at the bottom of the slope, it will continue moving.
 When entering a building through a rotating door, inertia will allow the door to hit you in the
back if you don't get out of the way.
 If you are rolling a cart with something on top and you hit something that makes the cart stop,
what is on top may fall off.
 It is harder to stop a big vehicle, like a bus, than a smaller vehicle, like a motorcycle. There
is more inertia with the bigger object.
 A concussion occurs because your brain is still moving while the outside skull is stopped.
This is what causes the injury.
 Space probes are launched to get past the Earth's atmosphere. Then they coast due to
inertia.
 If you are on a train and the train is moving at a constant speed, a toy tossed into the air will
go straight up and then come down. This is because the toy has inertia like the train and you.

2. The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is
made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.

Newton’s second law is most recognizable in its mathematical form, the

iconic equation: F=ma. The strength of the force (F) is defined by how much
it changes the motion acceleration (a) of an object with some mass (m).

Examples:

1. A 1 kg object accelerated at a constant 5 m/s2. Estimate the net force needed to

accelerate the object.
Known :
Mass (m) = 1 kg
Acceleration (a) = 5 m/s2
Wanted : net force (∑F)
Solution :
We use Newton’s second law to get the net force.
∑F = m a
∑F = (1 kg) (5 m/s2) = 5 kg m/s2 = 5 Newton
2. Mass of an object = 1 kg, net force ∑F = 2 Newton. Determine the magnitude and
direction of the object’s acceleration….

Known :
Mass (m) = 1 kg
Net force (∑F) = 2 Newton
Wanted : The magnitude and direction of the acceleration (a)
Solution :
a = ∑F / m
a=2/1
a = 2 m/s2
The direction of the acceleration = the direction of the net force (∑F)

3. Object’s mass = 2 kg, F1 = 5 Newton, F2 = 3 Newton. The magnitude and direction

of the acceleration is…

Known :
Mass (m) = 2 kg
F1 = 5 Newton
F2 = 3 Newton
Wanted : The magnitude and direction of the acceleration (a)
Solution :
net force :
∑F = F1 – F2 = 5 – 3 = 2 Newton
The magnitude of the acceleration :
a = ∑F / m
a=2/2
a = 1 m/s2
Direction of the acceleration = direction of the net force = direction of F1

4. Object’s mass = 2 kg, F1 = 10 Newton, F2 = 1 Newton. The magnitude and

direction of the acceleration is…
Known :

Mass (m) = 2 kg
F2 = 1 Newton
F1 = 10 Newton
F1x = F1 cos 60o = (10) (0.5) = 5 Newton
Wanted : The magnitude and direction of the acceleration (a)
Solution :
Net force :
∑F = F1x – F2 = 5 – 1 = 4 Newton
The magnitude of the acceleration :
a = ∑F / m
a=4/2
a = 2 m/s2
Direction of the acceleration = direction of the net force = direction of F1x

5. F1 = 10 Newton, F2 = 1 Newton, m1 = 1 kg, m2 = 2 kg. The magnitude and

direction of the acceleration is…

Known :
Mass 1 (m1) = 1 kg
Mass 2 (m2) = 2 kg
F1 = 10 Newton
F2 = 1 Newton
Wanted : The magnitude and direction of the acceleration (a)
Solution :
The net force :
∑F = F1 – F2 = 10 – 1 = 9 Newton
The magnitude of the acceleration :
a = ∑F / (m1 + m2)
a = 9 / (1 + 2)
a=9/3
a = 3 m/s2
The direction of the acceleration = the direction of the net force = direction of F1

Sine, Cosine and Tangent are the main functions used in Trigonometry and are based on a Right-
Angled Triangle. Before getting stuck into the functions, it helps to give a name to each side of a
right triangle: "Opposite" is opposite to the angle θ "Adjacent" is adjacent (next to) to the angle θ

3. To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions
of two bodies upon each other are always equal and directed to contrary parts.

As Newton himself described: “If you press a stone with your finger, the
finger is also pressed by the stone.”

If a body A exerts a force on a body B, then B exerts a force on A in the opposite

direction with the same magnitude.

The third law states that all forces between two objects exist in equal magnitude
and opposite direction: if one object A exerts a force FA on a second object B,
then B simultaneously exerts a force FB on A, and the two forces are equal in
magnitude and opposite in direction: FA = −FB. The third law means that all forces
are interactions between different bodies or different regions within one body, and
thus that there is no such thing as a force that is not accompanied by an equal and
opposite force. In some situations, the magnitude and direction of the forces are
determined entirely by one of the two bodies, say Body A; the force exerted by
Body A on Body B is called the "action", and the force exerted by Body B on
Body A is called the "reaction". This law is sometimes referred to as the action-
reaction law, with FA called the "action" and FB the "reaction". In other situations
the magnitude and directions of the forces are determined jointly by both bodies
and it isn't necessary to identify one force as the "action" and the other as the
"reaction". The action and the reaction are simultaneous, and it does not matter
which is called the action and which is called reaction; both forces are part of a
single interaction, and neither force exists without the other.

The two forces in Newton's third law are of the same type (e.g., if the road exerts
a forward frictional force on an accelerating car's tires, then it is also a frictional
force that Newton's third law predicts for the tires pushing backward on the road).

From a conceptual standpoint, Newton's third law is seen when a person walks:
they push against the floor, and the floor pushes against the person. Similarly, the
tires of a car push against the road while the road pushes back on the tires—the
tires and road simultaneously push against each other. In swimming, a person
 interacts with the water, pushing the water backward, while the water
simultaneously pushes the person forward—both the person and the water push
against each other. The reaction forces account for the motion in these examples.
These forces depend on friction; a person or car on ice, for example, may be
unable to exert the action force to produce the needed reaction force.

Gravity

Within the pages of Principia, Newton also presented his law of universal gravitation as a
case study of his laws of motion. All matter exerts a force, which he called gravity, that
pulls all other matter towards its center. The strength of the force depends on the mass
of the object: The Sun has more gravity than Earth, which in turn has more gravity than
an apple. Also, the force weakens with distance. Objects far from the Sun won’t be
influenced by its gravity.

Isaac Newton demonstrated his

universal law of gravitation by
showing that a comet visible during
1680 and 1681 followed the path of
a parabola. [Adapted from Isaac
Newton, 1687. Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.”)]

Newton’s laws of motion and gravity explained Earth’s annual journey around the Sun.
Earth would move straight forward through the universe, but the Sun exerts a constant
pull on our planet. This force bends Earth’s path toward the Sun, pulling the planet into
an elliptical (almost circular) orbit. His theories also made it possible to explain and predict
the tides. The rise and fall of ocean water levels are created by the gravitational pull of
the Moon as it orbits Earth.

Einstein and Relativity

The ideas outlined in Newton’s laws of motion and universal gravitation stood
unchallenged for nearly 220 years until Albert Einstein presented his theory of special
relativity in 1905. Newton’s theory depended on the assumption that mass, time, and
distance are constant regardless of where you measure them.

The theory of relativity treats time, space, and mass as fluid things, defined by an
observer’s frame of reference. All of us moving through the universe on the Earth are in
a single frame of reference, but an astronaut in a fast-moving spaceship would be in a
different reference frame.

Within a single frame of reference, the laws of classical physics, including Newton’s laws,
hold true. But Newton’s laws can’t explain the differences in motion, mass, distance, and
time that result when objects are observed from two very different frames of reference.
To describe motion in these situations, scientists must rely on Einstein’s theory of
relativity.

At slow speeds and at large scales, however, the differences in time, length, and mass
predicted by relativity are small enough that they appear to be constant, and Newton’s
laws still work. In general, few things are moving at speeds fast enough for us to notice
relativity. For large, slow-moving satellites, Newton’s laws still define orbits. We can still
use them to launch Earth-observing satellites and predict their motion. We can use them
to reach the Moon, Mars, and other places beyond Earth. For this reason, many scientists
see Einstein’s laws of general and special relativity not as a replacement of Newton’s
laws of motion and universal gravitation, but as the full culmination of his idea.

Who discovered the Earth revolves around the sun?

 Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who put forth the theory that the
Sun is at rest near the center of the Universe, and that the Earth, spinning on its
axis once daily, revolves annually around the Sun. This is called the heliocentric,
or Sun-centered system.
 In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus detailed his radical theory of the Universe in which
the Earth, along with the other planets, rotated around the Sun. His theory took
more than a century to become widely accepted.
 In fact, our gaseous sun is divided into different zones and layers, with each of our
host star's regions moving at varying speeds. On average, the sun rotates on its
axis once every 27 days. However, its equator spins the fastest and takes about 24
days to rotate, while the poles take more than 30 days.

Why the Earth revolves around the sun?

 Anyway, the basic reason why the planets revolve around or orbit the Sun, is that
the gravity of the Sun keeps them in their orbits. Just as the Moon orbits the Earth
because of the pull of Earth's gravity, the Earth orbits the Sun because of the pull
of the Sun's gravity.
What happens to the kinetic energy of a ball when it hits the floor?

 If the ball was dropped, gravity would accelerate it to give it kinetic energy. So, by
letting go of the ball, I could change potential energy into kinetic energy. When it
hits the floor, it has no potential energy, but lots of kinetic energy. Another
interesting thing happens when the ball hits the floor.

Why does a ball fall to the ground?

  In the real world, air resistance can cause a lighter object to fall slower than a
heavier object of the same size. The force of gravity causes objects to fall toward
the center of Earth. The acceleration of free-falling objects is therefore called the
acceleration due to gravity.

What is a formula of a circle?

 The area of a circle is: π (Pi) times the Radius squared: A = π r2. or, when you
know the Diameter: A = (π/4) × D2. or, when you know the Circumference: A = C2 /
4π