Newton's law of gravity

1. Newton’s Law of
Universal Gravitation
Physics

2. Isaac Newton
 1666, England (45 years
after Kepler).

3. Questions
 If the planets are orbiting the sun , what force is
keeping them in orbit?
 What force keeps the moon in its orbit?
 Could the force of gravity be universal?

4. Newton’s Law of Universal
Gravitation
 Any two objects attract each other with a
gravitational force, proportional to the
product of their masses and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance
between them.
 The force acts in the direction of the line
connecting the centers of the masses.

5. Newton’s Law of Universal
Gravitation
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2009/07/meet_our_second_moon/400px-NewtonsLawOfUniversalGravitation.svg.png

6. Think: Why does the moon not fall
straight down onto the earth?

7. Henry
Cavendish’s
experiment
determined the
proportionality
constant
G
in 1798.
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/1639/16390101.jpg

8. The Value of G.
G= 6.67 x 10-11
N m2
/ kg2

9. Change of
Gravitational Force
with Distance
 Law of universal
gravitation is
known as an
inverse-square
law.

10. Problem 1
 Two spheres of mass 35kg are 60m apart.
A) What force does one exert on the other?
B) If the mass of on is tripled and the radius
is quadrupled how does the force change?

11. Problem 2
 Two spheres of equal mass have a force
of gravity of 7x10-9
exerted on each other.
If the distance between them is 7m, find
the mass.

12. Problem 3
 Find the value of the gravitational
acceleration g. The mass of the earth is
6.0 x 1024
kg.