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Theories of Motion
Aristotle’s Theory of Motion
"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit" - Aristotle
Arisotle -
Born in 384 BCE and died in 322 BCE
He was born in Stagira in Thrace, Greece
At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven which
was in 347 BC.
Two Main factors of Motion:
Aristotle believes that all motion on the Earth is linear, and all motion in space is curved.
He considers that motion is processed in two main factors... Natural Motion, and Violent Motion.
Natural Motion
The natural motions include the apparent movements of celestial objects for example, the falling of
leaves to the ground, air bubbles in water etc.
According to Aristotle, the cause of such motions is that all objects and substances have a natural place
or level, and they proceed along straight vertical paths to their natural places.
However, the natural motions can be put out of their natural place when the force of being pushed or
pulled is occurring.
Violent Motion
Aristotle also considered violent motions, which were any motions resulting from acts of volition of
living beings.
Although his writings aren't mentioned as much in this area, it seems that he believed such beings were
capable of self-motion, i.e., of initiating motion in the first instance, without having been compelled to
motion by some external agent.
Such self-movers are capable of inducing composite motions in other objects.
His theories of Motion as one.
Aristotle announced that the planets and stars were on concentric crystalline spheres which centered on
the Earth.
Each of the planets including the Sun, and Moon were in their own sphere, and the stars were placed on
the largest sphere surrounding them.
In his theory of motion, things naturally move to the center of the Earth and the only way to stop it from
moving was to have force applied onto whatever object is moving.

Copernicus’ Theory of Motion

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The Copernican Model:

A Sun-Centered Solar System

The Earth-centered Universe of Aristotle and Ptolemy held sway on Western thinking for almost 2000
years. Then, in the 16th century a "new" (but remember Aristarchus) idea was proposed by the Polish
astronomer Nicolai Copernicus (1473-1543).

The Heliocentric System

In a book called On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (that was published as Copernicus lay on his
deathbed), Copernicus proposed that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the Solar System. Such a
model is called a heliocentric system. The ordering of the planets known to Copernicus in this new
system is illustrated in the following figure, which we recognize as the modern ordering of those planets.

Copernican Universe

In this new ordering the Earth is just another planet (the third outward from the Sun), and the Moon is
in orbit around the Earth, not the Sun. The stars are distant objects that do not revolve around the Sun.
Instead, the Earth is assumed to rotate once in 24 hours, causing the stars to appear to revolve around
the Earth in the opposite direction. Retrograde Motion and Varying Brightness of the Planets

The Copernican system by banishing the idea that the Earth was the center of the Solar System,
immediately led to a simple explanation of both the varying brightness of the planets and
retrograde motion:
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1. The planets in such a system naturally vary in brightness because they are not always the same
distance from the Earth.
2. The retrograde motion could be explained in terms of geometry and a faster motion for planets
with smaller orbits, as illustrated in the following animation.

A similar construction can be made to illustrate retrograde motion for a planet inside the orbit of the
Earth.

Copernicus and the Need for Epicycles

There is a common misconception that the Copernican model did away with the need for epicycles. This
is not true, because Copernicus was able to rid himself of the long-held notion that the Earth was the
center of the Solar system, but he did not question the assumption of uniform circular motion. Thus, in
the Copernican model the Sun was at the center, but the planets still executed uniform circular motion
about it. As we shall see later, the orbits of the planets are not circles, they are actually ellipses. As a
consequence, the Copernican model, with its assumption of uniform circular motion, still could not
explain all the details of planetary motion on the celestial sphere without epicycles. The difference was
that the Copernican system required many fewer epicyclesthan the Ptolemaic system because it moved
the Sun to the center.

The Copernican Revolution

We noted earlier that 3 incorrect ideas held back the development of modern astronomy from the time
of Aristotle until the 16th and 17th centuries: (1) the assumption that the Earth was the center of the
Universe, (2) the assumption of uniform circular motion in the heavens, and (3) the assumption that
objects in the heavens were made from a perfect, unchanging substance not found on the Earth.

Copernicus challenged assumption 1, but not assumption 2. We may also note that the Copernican
model implicitly questions the third tenet that the objects in the sky were made of special unchanging
stuff. Since the Earth is just another planet, there will eventually be a natural progression to the idea
that the planets are made from the same stuff that we find on the Earth.

Copernicus was an unlikely revolutionary. It is believed by many that his book was only published at the
end of his life because he feared ridicule and disfavor by his peers and by the Church, which had
elevated the ideas of Aristotle to the level of religious dogma. However, this reluctant revolutionary set
in motion a chain of events that would eventually (long after his lifetime) produce the greatest
revolution in thinking that Western civilization has seen. His ideas remained rather obscure for about
100 years after his death. But, in the 17th century the work of Kepler, Galileo, and Newton would build
on the heliocentric Universe of Copernicus and produce the revolution that would sweep away
completely the ideas of Aristotle and replace them with the modern view of astronomy and natural
science. This sequence is commonly called the Copernican Revolution.

Been There, Done That: Aristarchus of Samos

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There are many examples throughout history, including in modern times, where a theory, or a part of a
theory, is proposed and doesn't catch on initially but only later bears fruit--and possibly with later
proponent gaining credit that is really deserved by the originator. I think the example of Aristarchus is a
poignant one.

This applies here because the idea of Copernicus was not really new! A sun-centered Solar System had
been proposed as early as about 200 B.C. by Aristarchus of Samos (Samos is an island off the coast of
what is now Turkey). Aristarchus actually proposed that the Earth rotated on in addition to its orbiting
around the sun. Many of Aristarchus' writings were unfortunately lost. More importantly however, they
did not survive long under the weight of Aristotle's influence and the "common sense" of the time:

1. If the Earth actually spun on an axis (as required in

a heliocentric system to explain the diurnal motion
of the sky), why didn't objects fly off the spinning
Earth?
2. If the Earth was in motion around the sun, why
didn't it leave behind the birds flying in the air?
3. If the Earth were actually on an orbit around the
sun, why wasn't a parallax effect observed? That is,
as illustrated in the adjacent figure, where stars
would appear to change their position with the
respect to the other background stars as the Earth
moved about its orbit, because of viewing them
from a different perspective (just as viewing an
object first with one eye, and then the other,
causes the apparent position of the object to
change with respect to the background).

The first two objections were not valid because they represent an inadequate understanding of the
physics of motion that would only be corrected in the 17th century. The third objection is valid, but
failed to account for what we now know to be the enormous distances to the stars. As illustrated in the
following figure, the amount of parallax decreases with distance.

The parallax effect is there, but it is very small because the stars are so far away that their parallax can
only be observed with very precise instruments. Indeed, the parallax of stars was not measured
conclusively until the year 1838. Thus, the heliocentric idea of Aristarchus was quickly forgotten and
Western thought stagnated for almost 2000 years as it waited for Copernicus to revive the heliocentric
theory.
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Galileo’s Theory of Motion

Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist and astronomer. He was born in Pisa on February 15, 1564.
Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a well-known musician. Vincenzo decided that his son should
become a doctor.

In 1581, Galileo was sent to the University of Pisa to study medicine. While a student at the university,
Galileo discovered that he had a talent for mathematics. He was able to persuade his father to allow him
to leave the university to become a tutor in mathematics. He later became a professor of mathematics.

In 1609, Galileo heard about the invention of the spyglass, a device which made distant objects appear
closer. Galileo used his mathematics knowledge and technical skills to improve upon the spyglass and
build a telescope. Later that same year, he became the first person to look at the Moon through a
telescope and make his first astronomy discovery. He found that the Moon was not smooth, but
mountainous and pitted - just like the Earth! He subsequently used his newly invented telescope to
discover four of the moons circling Jupiter, to study Saturn, to observe the phases of Venus, and to
study sunspots on the Sun.

Galileo's observations strengthened his belief in Copernicus' theory that Earth and all other
planets revolve around the Sun. Most people in Galileo's time believed that the Earth was the center of
the universe and that the Sun and planets revolved around it.

The Catholic Church, which was very powerful and influential in Galileo's day, strongly supported the
theory of a geocentric, or Earth-centered, universe. After Galileo began publishing papers about his
astronomy discoveries and his belief in a heliocentric, or Sun-centered, Universe, he was called to Rome
to answer charges brought against him by the Inquisition (the legal body of the Catholic Church). Early in
1616, Galileo was accused of being a heretic, a person who opposed Church teachings. Heresy was a
crime for which people were sometimes sentenced to death. Galileo was cleared of charges of heresy,
but was told that he should no longer publicly state his belief that Earth moved around the Sun. Galileo
continued his study of astronomy and became more and more convinced that all planets revolved
around the Sun. In 1632, he published a book that stated, among other things, that the heliocentric
theory of Copernicus was correct. Galileo was once again called before the Inquisition and this time was
found guilty of heresy. Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1633. Because of his age and poor
health, he was allowed to serve his imprisonment under house arrest. Galileo died on January 8, 1642.
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Newton’s Theory of Motion

Newton's First Law states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight
line unless acted upon by an external force. It may be seen as a statement about inertia, that
objects will remain in their state of motion unless a force acts to change the motion. Any change
in motion involves an acceleration, and then Newton’s Second Law applies. The First Law could
be viewed as just a special case of the Second Law for which the net external force is zero, but
that carries some presumptions about the frame of reference in which the motion is being
viewed. The statements of both the Second Law and the First Law here are presuming that the
measurements are being made in a reference frame which is not itself accelerating. Such a frame
is often referred to as an "inertial frame". The statement of these laws must be generalized if you
are dealing with a rotating reference frame or any frame which is accelerating.

Newton's First Law contains implications about the fundamental symmetry of the universe in that a
state of motion in a straight line must be just as "natural" as being at rest. If an object is at rest in one
frame of reference, it will appear to be moving in a straight line to an observer in a reference frame
which is moving by the object. There is no way to say which reference frame is "special", so all constant
velocity reference frames must be equivalent.

Centripetal Force Example

The string must provide the necessary centripetal force to move the ball in a circle. If the string breaks,
the ball will move off in a straight line. The straight line motion in the absence of the constraining force
is an example of Newton’s first law. The example here presumes that no other net forces are acting,
such as horizontal motion on a frictionless surface. The vertical circle is more involved.
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Newton's Second Law as stated below applies to a wide range of physical phenomena, but it is not a
fundamental principle like the Conservations Law. It is applicable only if the force is the net external
force. It does not apply directly to situations where the mass is changing, either from loss or gain of
material, or because the object is traveling close to the speed of light where relativistic effects must be
included. It does not apply directly on the very small scale of the atom where quantum mechanics must
be used.

Data can be entered into any of the boxes below. Specifying any two of the quantities determines the
third. After you have entered values for two, click on the text representing to third to calculate its value.

Newton's Second Law Illustration

Newton’s 2nd law enables us to compare the results of the same force exerted on objects of different
mass.

Newton's third law: All forces in the universe occur in equal but oppositely directed pairs. There are no
isolated forces; for every external force that acts on an object there is a force of equal magnitude but
opposite direction which acts back on the object which exerted that external force. In the case of
internal forces, a force on one part of a system will be countered by a reaction force on another part of
the system so that an isolated system cannot by any means exert a net force on the system as a whole.
A system cannot "bootstrap" itself into motion with purely internal forces - to achieve a net force and an
acceleration, it must interact with an object external to itself.
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Without specifying the nature or origin of the forces on

the two masses, Newton's 3rd law states that if they
arise from the two masses themselves, they must be
equal in magnitude but opposite in direction so that no
net force arises from purely internal forces.

Newton's third law is one of the fundamental symmetry principles of the universe. Since we have no
examples of it being violated in nature, it is a useful tool for analyzing situations which are somewhat
counter-intuitive. For example, when a small truck collides head-on with a large truck, your intuition
might tell you that the force on the small truck is larger. Not so!

Newton's Third Law Example

Newton’s third law can be illustrated by identifying the pairs of forces which are involved in
supporting the blocks on the spring scale.

Presuming that the blocks are supported and at equilibrium, then the net force on the system is zero. All
the forces occur in Newton's third law pairs.
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