Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 128 views

    What Is Gravitational Force

    Uploaded by

    Regg Flores
    Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses in the universe. Newton's law of universal gravitation states that the gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Gravity causes objects with mass to accelerate towards one another, such as the Earth pulling objects downward to keep them on the ground. The gravitational force between larger masses like the Earth and Moon is very strong, while the force between people is weaker due to their smaller masses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    What Is Gravitational Force

    Uploaded by

    Regg Flores
    128 views6 pages
    Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses in the universe. Newton's law of universal gravitation states that the gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Gravity causes objects with mass to accelerate towards one another, such as the Earth pulling objects downward to keep them on the ground. The gravitational force between larger masses like the Earth and Moon is very strong, while the force between people is weaker due to their smaller masses.

    Original Description:

    Physics assignment

    Original Title

    What is Gravitational Force

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses in the universe. Newton's law of universal gravitation states that the gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Gravity causes objects with mass to accelerate towards one another, such as the Earth pulling objects downward to keep them on the ground. The gravitational force between larger masses like the Earth and Moon is very strong, while the force between people is weaker due to their smaller masses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    128 views6 pages

    What Is Gravitational Force

    Uploaded by

    Regg Flores
    Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses in the universe. Newton's law of universal gravitation states that the gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Gravity causes objects with mass to accelerate towards one another, such as the Earth pulling objects downward to keep them on the ground. The gravitational force between larger masses like the Earth and Moon is very strong, while the force between people is weaker due to their smaller masses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

    What is Gravitational Force?

    Gravity or gravitational forces are forces of


    attraction. We're not talking about finding someone really
    cute and adorable. It's like the Earth pulling on you and
    keeping you on the ground. That pull is gravity at work.
    Every object in the universe that has mass exerts a
    gravitational pull, orforce, on every other mass. The size
    of the pull depends on the masses of the objects. You
    exert a gravitational force on the people around you, but
    that force isn't very strong, since people aren't very
    massive. When you look at really large masses, like the
    Earth and Moon, the gravitational pull becomes very
    impressive. The gravitational force between the Earth and
    the molecules of gas in the atmosphere is strong enough
    to hold the atmosphere close to our surface. Smaller
    planets, that have less mass, may not be able to hold an
    atmosphere.

    Newton's Law of Gravitation


    Idea: Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation states that any
    two objects exert a gravitational force of attraction on each other.
    The direction of the force is along the line joing the objects (See Fig.
    (7.3)). The magnitude of the force is proportional to the product of
    the gravitational masses of the objects, and inversely proportional to
    the square of the distance between them. For the two objects in
    Figure 7.3:
    Figure 7.3: Gravitational Force Between Two Masses

    m1 exerts a force

    on m2 .

    m2 exerts a force

    on m1 .

    By Newton's third law:

    =-

    The magnitude of the gravitational force is:


    (22)

    F12 = G

    G is Newton's constant:
    G = 6.67

    10- 11 N m

    /kg 2.

    (23)

    Note:
    The inertial mass of an object determines the amount of force
    needed to produce a given acceleration of that object.
    The gravitational massdetermines the force of gravitational
    attraction between two bodies. In Newtonian mechanics, these
    two masses have no obvious connection with each other.
    Nonetheless, it was observed empirically that they are
    numerically equal. This remarkable fact was known for
    centuries, but remained unexplained until Einstein's General
    Theory of relativity.
    Newton's gravitational constant is extremely small when
    expressed in terms of laboratory sized objects: the
    gravitational force between two 1 kgobjects separated
    by 1 m is only 6.67 x 10- 11 Newtons.
    For an object of mass m near the Earth's surface:
    (24)

    Fgrav = - G

    m = - mg

    where ME = 5.98 x 1024 kg is the mass of the Earth and RE =


    6.38 x 106 m is the radius of the earth and
    (25)

    = 9.8 m/s

    in agreement with the expression in Chapter 3.


    Definition: Gravitional Potential Energy
    Due to the gravitational force of attraction, any two objects with
    masses m1 and m2 located a distance r apart have the ability to do
    work. Hence they have potential energy. The gravitational
    potential energy of such objects is:

    (26)

    PE grav = - G

    Note:
    Recall that only differences in potential energy are physically
    relevant. In the above, the zero of gravitational potential
    energy has been arbitrarily chosen to be zero at r =
    . i.e.
    when the objects are infinitely far apart.
    The negative sign is a consequence of the attractive nature of
    the gravitational force. When the objects are far apart, the
    gravitational force naturally moves them closer, decreasing
    their potential energy (i.e. making it more negative).
    Gravitational potential energy near Earth's surface: For
    an object of mass m a distance h above the earth's surface:

    PE grav = - G
    If h < < RE we can approximate:

    so that:
    PEgrav
    -G

    =
    =

    -G
    +m
    constant + mgh.

    You might also like