Newton’s law of gravity

Newton discovered the relationship between the motion of

the Moon and the motion of a body falling freely on Earth. By
his dynamical and gravitational theories, he explained Kepler’s laws
and established the modern quantitative science of gravitation.
Newton assumed the existence of an attractive force between all
massive bodies, one that does not require bodily contact and that acts
at a distance. By invoking his law of inertia (bodies not acted upon by
a force move at constant speed in a straight line), Newton concluded
that a force exerted by Earth on the Moon is needed to keep it in a
circular motion about Earth rather than moving in a straight line. He
realized that this force could be, at long range, the same as the force
with which Earth pulls objects on its surface downward. When
Newton discovered that the acceleration of the Moon is 1/3,600
smaller than the acceleration at the surface of Earth, he related the
number 3,600 to the square of the radius of Earth. He calculated that
the circular orbital motion of radius R and period T requires a
constant inward acceleration A equal to the product of 4π  and the
2

ratio of the radius to the square of the time:

 effects of gravity on the Moon and Earth

Effects of gravity on Earth and the Moon.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The Moon’s orbit has a radius of about 384,000 km (239,000 miles;

approximately 60 Earth radii), and its period is 27.3 days (its synodic
period, or period measured in terms of lunar phases, is about 29.5
days). Newton found the Moon’s inward acceleration in its orbit to be
0.0027 metre per second per second, the same as (1/60)  of the
2

acceleration of a falling object at the surface of Earth.