Law of Universal Gravitation

Reported by: Michiko Aonuevo Ito Where it came from .. It was Sir Isaac Newton who discovered this.. he was a 17th century English physicist who discovered 3 Laws of Motion and the Universal Law of Gravity. There is a popular story that Newton was sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell on his head, and he suddenly thought of the Universal Law of Gravitation. As in all such legends, this is almost certainly not true in its details, but the story contains elements of what actually happened. From then, he wandered about the force that made objects fall. So then he made studies and investigations.. Newton published his argument in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), or simply .. PRINCIPIA. It is important to note that Newton was not "inventing" or "discovering" gravity; he was merely defining it mathematically. What is gravity by the way? Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon in which objects with mass attract one another. > In everyday life, gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped. Gravity acts between everything in the Universe. It is the force holding the universe together.

Law of Universal Gravitation >> Two bodies attract each other with equal and opposite forces; the magnitude of this force is proportional to the product of the two masses and is also proportional to the inverse square of the distance between the centers of mass of the two bodies. Simply: Gravity is the force holding the universe together. There is a gravitational force between any two objects in the universe, so it is called universal gravitation. Gravity pulls you down because there is a gravitational force between you and the Earth. There is also a gravitational force between you and the Sun and between you and the person sitting next to you. You don't fall to the Sun,

because it is too far away for its gravitational force to be strong. You don't fall towards the people next to you because they are much less massive than Earth. But.. Why?! Why do we fall down towards Earth rather than towards the Sun, another planet, or the people next to us? >> The force of gravity between two objects depends on the masses of the two objects and the distance between the centers of the two objects. Gravitational Force and Mass The more the masses of the objects, the larger the gravitational force between them. It is much farther away. As the distance between two objects gets larger, the gravitational force between them gets smaller. As the distance between two objects gets larger, the gravitational force between them gets smaller. It never gets to zero; it just gets too small to matter. If you were suddenly suspended in space twice as far from the center of the Earth as you are now. the gravitational force would be one fourth as much as it is on Earth's surface. If you weigh 100 pounds, you would suddenly weigh 25 pounds. No matter how far you got from Earth, there would still be some, very small, gravitational force between you and Earth Astronauts in space are weightless because they are falling around the Earth, not because there is no gravity in space. There is gravity everywhere. Key Points: The Law of Universal Gravitation explains that gravitational force decreases with distance. In addition, the theory notes that the greater an object's mass, the greater its gravitational force. Newtons Universal Law of Gravitation States that; Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a Force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. So.. Its simply all about gravitation, but why do we call this as the universal law of gravitation? Isaac Newton realized that the same forces and the same laws of physics apply everywhere in the universe. Newton would use universal gravitation, along with his laws of motion, to substantiate Kepler's laws of planetary motion.

How did Kepler entered the scene? From falling apple, Newton concluded that the force w/c keeps the planets orbiting around the sun is of the same nature as the force exerted by the earth on moon an any other body.

Formula:

F = gravitational force between two objects m1 = mass of first object m2 = mass of second object r = distance between the objects G = universal constant of gravitation G is known as the universal gravitational constant. It is termed a "universal constant. The value of G was determined through the works of Henry Cavendish.

Example Problems: 1.) Determine the force of attraction between a 15.0kg box and a 63.0 kg person if they are 3.45m apart. Given: m1 = 15.0 kg R = 3.45 m m2 = 63.0 kg Fg = ??? Solution:

Fg = 5.30e-9 N

2.) Given: m1= 70 kg m2 = 70 kg r = 0.2 m Fg = ??? Answer: Fg = 8.17 X 10-6 N

QUIZ:
1.) Who discovered the Law of Universal Gravitation? 2.) What fell from the tree that made that person wonder? 3.) Where did that person published his arguments? 4.) It is a natural phenomenon in which objects with mass attract one another. 5.)It is known as the universal gravitational constant. 6.) The value of G was determined through the works of .. ? 7.) the value of G 8-10: True or false.. 8.) Gravitational Force never becomes zero. 9.) There is no gravity in the outer space. 10.) There is always a gravitational force between any two objects in the universe. Answers: 1.) Sir Isaac Newton 2.) An apple 3.) PRINCIPIA 4.) Gravitation, or gravity, 5.) G 6.) Henry Cavendish. 7.) 6.67x10e-11 8.) true 9.) false 10.) true !