Newton’s Laws of

Universal Gravitation
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation
-Every object in the universe attracts every other object
with a force proportional to the product of their masses
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between the centers of the mass of the objects.
F= m1m2/d2 where m1 = mass of one object
m2 = mass of the other object
d = distance between their
centers of mass.
Axioms
-Is an established rule or principle.
-It is a proposition assumed to be true
and universally recognized as truth.
Empirical law
-Is based on experience and observations
rather than on theory or principle.
-It can be verified or disproved by
observation or experiment
Gravitational force
-The force that holds the Planets, the Moon,
and the Sun together in the solar system.
-This gravitational force was later shown to be
exactly the right amount of force to account for
the motions of the heavenly bodies in the solar
system.
Mass
-More fundamental than weight
-It is the measure of the actual
material present in a body.
-Depends only on the number and
kind of atoms that compose the body.
…on the other hand,

the weight of the body is the gravitational

force that acts on the material and
depends on where the object is located.
Weight
-Is the force which gravity exerts on
-This is the force that causes an object to fall with a
constant acceleration g.
g – the acceleration due to gravity, when no other
force acts on it.
g = 9.8 m/s2
 in Newton’s second law of motion, F=ma
W may be substituted for F and g for a to give:
W=mg
Linear Momentum
-is the quantity that measures the tendency of a
body to continue in motion along a straight path.
Linear Momentum
-is
the quantity that measures the tendency of a
body to continue in motion along a straight path, p
the product of the mass, m of an object and it
velocity, v
p=mv
Unit is kg m/s
Law of energy conservation

- “Energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it may be

transformed from one form to another, but the total
amount remains the same”
Importance of Universal law of Gravitation
• The gravitational force holds the Solar
System together.
• Holding the atmosphere near the surface
of earth.
• The flow of water in the rivers.
Continuation…
• For rainfall and snowfall
• Motion of the moon around earth.
• Occurrence of tides
Gravitational forces between different
Objects
• Mass of earth 6 x 1024 kg
• Radius of earth 6.4 x 106 m
• Mass of sun 2 x 1030 kg
• Mass of moon 7.36 x 1022 kg
Continuation…
• Distance between Sun and Earth = 1.5
x 1011 m
• Distance between Moon and Earth =
3.8 x 108 m
Continuation…
• Gravitation force between Sun and
Earth = 3.6 x 1022 N
• Gravitation force between Moon and
Earth = 2.5 x 1020 N