Unit 2

Two-dimensional motion
Introduction
Kinematics is the study of motion without considering its causes. For example, studying the motion of a football without considering what
forces cause or change its motion. Two-dimensional kinematics are simple extensions of the one-dimensional kinematics developed for
motion in a straight line in Grade 11.
This simple extension will allow us to apply physics to many more situations, and it will also yield unexpected insights about nature.
A ball kicked by a football player, the orbital motion of planets, a bicycle rounding a curve, the rotation of wheels of a car are a few
examples of two-dimension motion. In fact, most motions in nature follow curved paths rather than straight lines. Such types of motion
along a curved plane are described by two-dimensional kinematics.

2.1 Projectile motion

A projectile is a thrown, fired, or released object that moves only under the influence of gravitational force. The projectile acceleration is g
9.8m/ss. Anyone who has observed the motion of a ball kicked by a football player (Figure 2.1b) has observed projectile motion. The ball
moves in a curved path and returns to the ground. Other examples of projectile motion include a cannonball fired from cannon, a bullet
fired from a gun, the flight of a golf ball and a jet of water escaping a hose.

Figure 2.1 a) A ball thrown horizontally b) A football kicked in a game

Projectile motion of an object is simple to analyze if we make three assumptions:

1. The free-fall acceleration is constant over the range of motion, and it is always directed downward. It is the acceleration due to
gravity (g)=9.8m/s2.
2. The effect of air resistance is negligible.
3. The horizontal velocity is constant because the acceleration of the object does not have vertical component.
With these assumptions, we find that the path of a projectile, which we call its trajectory, is a parabola as shown in Figure ??.

The horizontal and vertical components of a projectile’s motion are completely independent of each other and can be handled separately,
with time t as a common variable for both components.

Horizontal Projection
In this type of motion the projectile is projected horizontally from a certain height
as shown in Figure 2.2. Its initial velocity along the vertical direction is zero and it
possesses only horizontal velocity at the beginning. As the time progresses, due
to the impact of gravity, it acquires the vertical component of velocity (Figure 2.2).
Equations for the horizontal component of motion
The projectile has zero acceleration along x direction. Therefore, the initial Figure 2.2 The motion of a ball projected
velocity v0x remains constant throughout the motion. We use constant acceleration horizontally
motion equations. The final horizontal velocity, vx after a time t is:
vx = v0x (constant)
The horizontal distance traveled by the projectile at a time t is given by the equation v0xt
Equations of vertical motion
The vertical motion is a constant accelerated motion. We use the kinematic equations of motion for constant accelerated motion. The final
vertical velocity vy after time t is:
vy voy – gt Where v0y is the initial vertical velocity.
The initial vertical velocity has no downward component (v0y=0). Therefore vy = gt
From the kinematics equations, the vertical displacement, y has a form:
But therefore
Time of flight
The time of flight is the time taken by the projectile to hit the ground.

We know that:  √
Range
The range is the maximum horizontal distance traveled by the projectile. Once we find the time of flight t, we can solve for the horizontal
displacement using:
x = v0xt
In projectile motion, the time to cover both the x and y displacement is the same.
By substituting the total time flight, we get:

R=v0x√

Exercises
1. A rifle is aimed horizontally at a target 30m away as shown in Figure.
The bullet hits the target 2 cm below the aiming point.
(a) What is the bullet’s time of flight?
(b) What is the initial velocity of the bullet?
Assume gravity (g) =10m/s2
2. A rescue airplane travelling at 360 km/h horizontally dropped a food package from a height of 300 m when it passes over a car driver
stranded in the desert. Assuming (g)=10m/s2.
(a) How long will it take the food package to reach the ground?
(b) How far from the car driver should the food package be dropped?
3. A package dropped form an airplane that fly horizontally at a height of 720m with 40m/s.
Find (a) the time taken to reach the ground
(b) the velocity and displacement after t=2sec
(c) the horizontal displacement
(d) the velocity when it reach the ground

Inclined projectile motion

This is a type of motion in which an object is projected with an initial velocity v0
which makes an angle θ with the horizontal. The initial velocity can be resolved
into two components, vertical and horizontal component. The vertical component
of the velocity changes with time as a result there is acceleration due to gravity.
The horizontal component of the velocity is constant throughout the flight; this is
because there is no force acting along the horizontal direction of the projectile as
a result there is no acceleration along x-axis. The analysis of the motion involves Figure: Inclined projectile motion
dealing with the two motions.
As shown in Figure, the projectile has velocity components at different positions. At the top where it reaches its maximum height the
vertical component of the velocity becomes zero. After Vy becomes zero the projectile changes its direction and make free fall.

Equations of inclined projectile motion

The initial velocity can be expressed as x component and y component: v0x = v0cos θ 𝑣𝑦
v0y = v0 sin θ 𝜃
The horizontal velocity at any time t is: vx = v0 cos θ (constant)
𝑣𝑥
The vertical velocity at any time t is: vy = vosin θ gt

Displacements of the projectile

There are two different types of displacement of the projectile motion:
𝟏
 Horizontal displacement at any time t: v0cosθ t  Vertical displacement at any time t: 𝒚 𝑣𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝒕 𝒈𝒕𝟐
𝟐
The time to reach the maximum height is: vy = v0sinθ + gt

Since vy = 0 at maximum height and g is negative

Time of flight
The time of flight is the total time for which the projectile remains in flight. The time of flight depends on the initial velocity of the object
and the angle of the projection, θ
 When the point of projection and point of return are on the same horizontal
level, the net vertical displacement of the object is zero, Y =0.

This last equation does not apply when the projectile lands at a different elevation from the one at which it was launched.

Horizontal range and maximum height of a Projectile

Range(R)
The range of the projectile is the maximum displacement in the horizontal direction. There is no acceleration in this direction since
gravity only acts vertically.
v0cosθ t
When x is maximum, x=R.
Since the time to cover the range is the total time of flight:

v0cosθ ( )
𝑣𝑜 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃
𝑅
The range is directly proportional to the 𝑔
square of the initial speed v0 and sin2θ.
Furthermore, we can see from the factor sin2θ that the range is maximum at 450

  ( )

 at the range is maximum

Figure 2.5 Trajectories of projectiles on leveled ground. (a)

The effect of initial velocity v0 on the range of a projectile with
a given initial angle. (b) The effect of initial angle θ on the
range of a projectile with a given initial speed.

Maximum height (H)

The maximum height of a projectile trajectory occurs when the vertical component of velocity, vy equals zero. As the projectile moves
upwards it goes against gravity, and therefore the velocity begins to decrease. Eventually the vertical velocity will reach zero, and the
projectile is immediately accelerated downward under gravity. Thus, once the projectile reaches its maximum height,
it begins to accelerate downward.

 The time to cover the maximum height is:

When y is maximum, y =H  ( ) ( )

𝒗𝒐 𝟐 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝟐 𝜽
𝑯
𝟐𝒈
Discussion question 2.4
Discussion
1. A ball is kicked into the air from the ground at an angle θ with the horizontal. When the ball reaches its highest point, which statement
is true ? (a) Both the velocity and acceleration of the ball are zero. (b) Its velocity is not zero, but its acceleration is zero. (c) Its
velocity is perpendicular to its acceleration. (d) Its acceleration depends on the angle at which the ball was thrown.
2. One ball is thrown horizontally. At the same time, a second ball is dropped from the same height. Ignoring air resistance and
assuming the ground is level, which ball hits the ground first? Explain why

Relation between range and maximum height

Consider a projectile motion as shown in Figure 2.4. The initial velocity of the projectile is v0, H is the maximum height and R is its
horizontal range. We know that the maximum height of the projectile H is given by the equation:

And horizontal range is given by the equation:

Divide the maximum height of the projectile by the horizontal range and substitute

𝑯 𝒕𝒂𝒏𝜽
𝑹 𝟒
Class Work

1. A projectile is fired in such a way that its horizontal range is equal to three times its maximum height. What is the angle
of projection?
2. A football player kicks a ball at angle of 370 with the horizontal. The initial velocity of the ball is 40 m/s.
a) Find the maximum height reached by the ball.
b) Find the horizontal range of the ball.
3. A ball is kicked from the ground with an initial speed of 25 m/s at an angle of 530 above the horizontal directly toward a
wall, as shown in Figure. The wall is 24m from the release point of the ball. (a) How long does the ball take to reach the
wall? (b) How far above the ground level does the ball hit the wall?
(c) What are the horizontal and vertical components of its velocity as it hits the wall
4. A ball is projected at an angle of 300 from the horizontal with a velocity of
40m/s. Find a) the time of flight
b) the maximum height
c) the range
d) the velocity and displacement after 1sec
e) the velocity and acceleration at the highest point
5. f) the velocity when it reach at the ground
5. As a projectile moves in its parabolic path, is there any point along the path where the velocity and acceleration
vectors are (a) perpendicular to each other (at right angles)? (b) parallel to each other?
6. Which of the following statements about projectile motion are true? (ignoring air resistance).
(a) The horizontal and vertical motions are independent.
(b) The force on the projectile is constant throughout the flight.
(c) The acceleration of the projectile is constant throughout the flight.
(d) The path depends upon the initial velocity, but not upon the mass of the projectile.
(e) All of the above statements are true.
7. A projectile is fired on Earth with some initial velocity. Another projectile is fired from the surface of the Moon
with the same initial velocity. If air resistance is ignored, which projectile has the greater range? Why? Which
reaches the greater height? Why? (Note that the free-fall acceleration on the Moon is about 1.6 m/s2).
2.2 Rotational Motion
Rotational motion is the motion of an object in a circle around a fixed axis. For
example, the rotation of Earth around its axis, the rotation of the flywheel of a
sewing machine, rotation of a ceiling fan, rotation of wheels of a car, and so on.

The disc in Figure 2.7 is performing rotational motion because all of its particles
are rotating around a fixed axis, called its axis of rotation. An object can rotate
around a fixed point in two directions: a clockwise or an anticlockwise direction
(also known as counterclockwise). Figure 2.8 A CD rotating
Rigid body is an object with a perfectly defined and unchanging shape. NO matter about afixed axis through
Figure 2.7 Rotation of a
the size of the force , the distance between any two particles within the object O perpendicular
disc of mass M around a
remains constant. fixed axis

Angular displacement and angular velocity

Angular displacement( θ)
Figure 2.8 is a view from above of a rotating compact disc, or CD. The disc rotates
around a fixed axis perpendicular to the plane of the figure, passing through the
center of the disc at O. One particle of the disc P, is kept at a fixed distance r from
the origin and rotates around O in a circle of radius r.

Because the disc is a rigid object, as the particle moves through an angle θ from
the reference line, every other particle on the object rotates through the same
angle . Therefore, we can associate the angle θ with the entire rigid object as well
as with an individual particle.

As the particle travels from position A to position B in a time interval t ,as shown
in Figure 2.9, the line joining the particle to the center sweeps out an angle θ . 𝜽 𝜽𝒇 𝜽𝒊
This quantity θ is defined as the angular displacement of the rigid object.

Because rotational motion involves studying circular paths, rather than using
meters to describe the angular displacement of an object, physicists use radians
or degrees. A radian is convenient because it naturally expresses angles in terms 𝟏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 2𝝅 𝒓𝒂𝒅 𝟑𝟔𝟎𝟎
of since one complete turn of a circle (360 degrees) equals 2 radians.

Angular velocity( )
How fast an object is rotating can be calculated using the concept of angular velocity. If the disc spins rapidly, the angular displacement
can occur in a short time interval. If it rotates slowly, the angular displacement occurs in a longer time interval. The rate at which angular
displacement occurs can vary. These different rotation rates can be quantified by defining the average angular velocity (Greek letter
omega) as the ratio of the angular displacement of a disc to the time interval t during which the displacement occurs.

Angular velocity has units of radians per second (rad/s).

Angular acceleration
If the angular velocity of an object changes from to in the time interval t, the object has an angular acceleration. The angular
acceleration (Greek letter alpha) of a rotating rigid object is defined as the ratio of the change in the angular speed to the time interval t
during which the change in the angular speed occurs:

Angular acceleration has units of radians per second squared (rad/s 2).

Direction of angular velocity and angular acceleration

Angular velocity and angular accelerations can be treated as a vector, so we must
include magnitude and direction. For rotation around a fixed axis, the direction
of rotational motion is specified in relation to the direction along the axis of rotation.
Therefore, the directions of and are along this axis. To illustrate this convention,
it is convenient to use the right-hand rule demonstrated in Figure 2.10.
When the four fingers of the right hand are wrapped in the direction of rotation,
Figure 2.10 The right-
the extended right thumb points in the direction of . The direction of follows from its definition hand rule for determining
the direction of the angular
velocity vector.
 It is in the same direction as if the angular speed is increasing in time, and it is antiparallel
(parallel but moving in the opposite direction) to if the angular speed is decreasing in time.
Equation of motion for constant angular acceleration
Consider a rigid object such as the CD rotating around a fixed axis with a constant angular acceleration. A set of kinematic equations exist
for rotational motion just as they do for translational motion. They have a similar form and are derived in a
similar fashion.

(constant angular acceleration)

Then, by rearranging, we get an equation
Where is the angular speed of the rigid object at time t = 0. This equation allows us to find the angular speed of the object at any
later time t. If the angular acceleration is constant, the average angular velocity is obtained by:
,
 ( )
When we substitute

( )

This equation allows us to find the angular displacement of the object at any later time t.
We know that: ( ) and
Combining these two equations, we get: ( )( )  𝜔 𝑓 𝜔 𝑖 𝜶 𝜃
This equation allows us to find the angular speed of the rigid object for any value of its angular position θ.
Kinematic equations for rotational and linear motion
The kinematics for rotational motion is completely analogous to linear (or translational) kinematics. Many of the equations for the
mechanics of rotating objects are similar to the motion equations for linear motion. When solving problems involving rotational motion,
we use variables that are similar to linear variables (distance, velocity and acceleration) but take into account the curvature
or rotation of the motion. We defined:
• the angular rotation θ, which is the angular equivalence of distance, s;
• the angular velocity , which is the angular equivalence of linear velocity v;
• the angular acceleration , which is the angular equivalence of linear acceleration, a.
Table 2.1 shows the analogy between linear and angular motion equations.
Linear motion with Angular motion with constant
constant acceleration angular acceleration

( ) ( )

Class work
1. What is the average angular velocity of a rotating wheel if its angular speed changes from 30 rad/s to 50 rad/s in 2 s?
2. A rotating wheel has an initial angular velocity of 10 rad/s and accelerates at 2.5 rad/s2.
(a) How many revolutions are completed in 30 s?
(b) What is angular speed of the wheel at t =20 s?
3. A car’s wheel has an initial angular velocity of 6 rad/s and a constant angular acceleration of 3 rad/s2. Calculate the angular velocity
after 100 rev?
4.A wheel has a radius of 20 cm and accelerates from rest to 15rev/s in 30s. What is the magnitude of the tangential acceleration of a
point at the tip of the wheel.
5. A car accelerates from 20 m/s to 24 m/s in 5 s. Calculate the angular acceleration of the wheels of the car if the radius of a wheel is
40 cm.
6. A boy rides a bicycle for 5 minutes. The wheel with radius of 30 cm completes 2000 rev during this time. Calculate.
(a) the average angular velocity of the wheel.
(b) the linear distance traveled by the bicycle in 5 minutes.
Relationship between angular motion and translational motion quantities
In this section, we derive some useful relationships between the angular quantities θ, and of a rotating rigid object and the
corresponding linear quantities s, v, and a of a point, p in the object. To do so, we must keep in mind that when a rigid object rotates
around a fixed axis as in Figure 2.11, every particle of the object moves in a circle whose center is on the axis of rotation. As the particle
moves along the circle through an angular displacement of θ, it moves through an arc length s.
The arc length s is related to the angle θ through the equation: s = r θ
Note that in this equation the angular displacement must be expressed in rad (not degrees or revolutions)
Because point p, in the figure moves in a circle, the translational velocity vector ⃗ is always tangent
to the circular path, and hence is called tangential velocity.
The magnitude of the tangential velocity of the point P is by definition the tangential speed v= ,
where s is the distance traveled by this point measured along the circular path.
Recalling that s = r θ and noting that r is constant, we get: Figure 2.11 As a rigid object rotates around
the fixed axis (the z axis) through O, the point
P has a tangential velocity 𝑣⃗ that is always a
v= v= 𝝎 tangent to the circular path of radius.

Therefore, the tangential speed of a point on a rotating rigid object equals the radius multiplied by the angular speed. Although every point
on the rigid object has the same angular speed, not every point has the same tangential speed because r is not the same for all points on the
object. The tangential speed of a point on the rotating object increases as it moves outward from the center of rotation.
We can relate the angular acceleration of the rotating rigid object to the tangential acceleration of the point P by taking the rate of change
v.

=  𝒂 𝑟𝜶
That is, the tangential component of the translational acceleration of a point on a rotating rigid object equals the radius multiplied by the
angular acceleration.
Figure 2.12 A
rope wrapped a
Class Work around a pulley
1. A rope is wrapped many times around a pulley of radius 50 cm as shown in Figure 2.12. of radius 50 cm.
How many revolutions of the pulley are required to raise a bucket to a height of 20 m?
2. The angular velocity of a bicycle wheel is 18 rad/s. If the radius of the wheel is 40 cm,
what is the speed of the bicycle in m/s?
3. Consider two particles, A and B, on a flat rotating disk as shown in Figure 2.13
Particle A is 20cm and particle B is 40cm from the center. The disc starts from rest
and its angular speed increases to 20rad/s in 4s.
(a) What is the average angular and linear acceleration for particle B?
Figure 2.13 Particle A and B on the rotating
(b) What is the average angular and linear acceleration for particle A?
disc are at different radius
Discussion question 2.7
1. What is the angular speed of the second hand of a clock? What is the direction of ⃗⃗ as you view a clock hanging vertically?
2. A wheel rotates counterclockwise in the xy plane. What is the direction of ⃗⃗. What is the direction of ⃗⃗⃗ if the angular velocity is
decreasing in time?
3. When a wheel of radius R rotates about a fixed axis, do all points on the wheel have (a) the same angular speed? And
(b) the same linear speed?

2.3. Rotational Dynamics

Having developed the kinematics of rotational motion, we now turn to the dynamics
of rotational motion. Just as force played a big role in linear dynamics, we have a torque
in rotational dynamics. We begin by defining this quantity and showing how it acts on
objects in rotational motion. Next, we relate torque to our study of kinematics through an
equation very similar to Newton’s second law.

Torque
Torque is the rotational effect of force. Torque is what causes an object to acquire angular acceleration. If F is the force acting on an object
and r is the distance from the axis of rotation to the point of application of the force, as shown in Figure 2.14, the magnitude of the torque
is given by:
⃗⃗ ⃗⃗
where θ is the angle between r and F when they are drawn from the same origin. Torque is a vector quantity, meaning it has both a
direction and a magnitude. Its SI unit is Nm. The direction of the torque is along the axis of rotation. It is determined by a right-hand-rule:
when you curl the fingers of your right hand in the direction of the rotation, your thumb points in the direction of the torque.
Moment of inertia (I)
The moment of inertia of an object is the quantitative measure of rotational inertia, just as mass is the
quantitative measure of linear inertia in translational motion. The greater the moment of inertia of a rigid
object or system of particles, the greater is its resistance to change in angular velocity about a fixed axis
of rotation. The moment of inertia depends on the mass and axis of rotation of the body.
The moment of inertia is given the symbol I. For a single point mass, as shown in Figure 2.16,
rotating at radius r from the axis of rotation the moment of inertia is:
Figure 2.16 Point mass rotating about O
I = mr 2
From the formula, the SI unit of moment of inertia is kgm2. Moment of inertia is a scalar quantity.
The moment of inertia for more than one particle around a fixed axis is:
I = m1r12 + m2r22 + m3r32...
2.4. Planetary motion and Kepler’s laws
The planets orbit the Sun. They maintain their respective distances from the Sun. They do not cross each other as they revolve around
the Sun. Kepler’s laws describe how planetary bodies orbit around the Sun.

Kepler’s laws
Humans have observed the movements of the planets, stars, and other celestial objects for
thousands of years. In early history, these observations led scientists to regard Earth as the
center of the Universe. This geocentric model was elaborated and formalized by the
Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (c.100–c.170) in the second century and was accepted
for the next 1400 years.
Figure 2.19 Earth with its Moon revolving around the Sun.
In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) suggested that
Earth and the other planets revolved in circular orbits around the Sun (the heliocentric model).
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) wanted to determine how the universe was constructed and pursued a project to determine
the positions of both stars and planets. His observations of the planets and stars visible from Earth were carried out using only a large
sextant and a compass. (The telescope had not yet been invented.)
German astronomer Johannes Kepler was Brahe’s assistant for a short while before Brahe’s death, where upon he acquired his mentor’s
astronomical data. Kepler spent 16 years trying to deduce a mathematical model for the motion of the planets. Such data are difficult
to sort out because the moving planets are observed from a moving Earth. After many lengthy calculations, Kepler found that Brahe’s
data on the revolution of Mars around the Sun led to a successful model. Kepler’s complete analysis of planetary motion is summarized
in three statements known as Kepler’s laws

Kepler’s first law

Kepler’s first law is sometimes referred to as the law of ellipses. It states that the orbit of a planet around the Sun is an ellipse (near
circular, oval) with the Sun at one focus (Figure 2.20a).

Figure 2.20 (a) The motion of a planet about

the Sun. (b) Any distance drawn from f1 and f2
to a point on the curve adds up to a constant.

The planet follows the ellipse in its orbit, meaning that the planet-to-Sun distance is constantly changing as the planet goes around its
orbit. An ellipse is a closed curve such that the sum of the distances from a point on the curve (r 1 + r2) to the two foci, f 1 and f 2 is constant,
as shown in Figure 2.20b.
Kepler’s second law
Kepler’s second law is sometimes referred to as the law of equal areas. It describes
the speed at which any given planet will move while orbiting the Sun.
Basically, it states that planets do not move with constant speed along their orbits.
Instead, their speed varies so that the line joining the centers of the Sun and the
planet sweeps out equal area in equal times. The point at which a planet is
nearest the Sun is called perihelion. The point of greatest separation is aphelion.
Hence Kepler’s second Law, a planet is moving fastest Figure 2.21 The shaded regions shown have
when it is at perihelion and slowest at aphelion. equal areas and represent the same time interval
Kepler’s second law states that each planet moves so that an imaginary line drawn from the sun to the planet sweeps out equal areas in
equal times interval. Consider Figure 2.21. The time it takes a planet to move from position A to B, sweeping out area A1, is exactly the
time taken to move from position C to D, sweeping area A2 and to move from E to F, sweeping out area A3. These areas are the same:

A1 = A2 = A3
Comparing the areas in the Figure 2.21 and the distance traveled along the ellipse in each case, we can see that in order for the areas to be
equal, the planet must speed up as it gets closer to the Sun and slow down as it moves away.

Kepler’s Third law

Kepler’s third law compares the orbital period and the average radius of orbit of a planet to those of other planets. Unlike Kepler’s first
and second laws that describe the motion characteristics of a single planet, the third law makes a comparison between the motion
characteristics of different planets. The period (T) of a planet is the time for one complete revolution around the Sun. Kepler’s third law
implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit. Thus we find that Mercury, the
innermost planet, takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun. Earth takes 365 days, while Saturn requires 10,759 days to do the same.

Kepler’s third law states that the ratio , where T is the time period and R is the average distance from the sun is the same for all
planets
, K is a proportionality constant which is nearly the same for all planets.
Kepler’s third law equation is valid for both circular and elliptical orbits. Notice that the constant of proportionality is independent of
the mass of the planet. Therefore, the equation is valid for any planet.

As an illustration, consider the orbital period and average distance from Sun (orbital radius) for Earth and Mars as given in table 2.2.
Table 2.2 The orbital period and average distance from the Sun for Earth and Mars

Observe that the ratio is the same for Earth as it is for Mars. In fact, the ratio is the same for the other planets

Class Work
1. Earth has an orbital period of 365 days and its mean distance from the Sun is 1.495x108 km. The planet Pluto’s mean
distance from the Sun is 5.896x109 km. Using Kepler’s third law, calculate Pluto’s orbital period in Earth days?
2. If Saturn is on average 9 times farther from the Sun than Earth is, what is this distance in Earth years?

2.5 Newton’s law of universal Gravitation

Planets orbit the Sun. If we look more closely at the Solar System, we see almost unimaginable numbers of stars, galaxies,
and other celestial objects orbiting one another and interacting through gravity. All these motions are governed by
gravitational force. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) pointed out that heavy and light objects fall toward Earth at the same rate
(so long as air resistance is the same for each). But it took Sir Isaac Newton (in 1666) to realize that this force of attraction
between masses is universal.
Newton proved that the force that causes, for example, an apple to fall toward the ground is the same force that causes the Moon to fall
around, or orbit, Earth. This universal force also acts between the Earth and the Sun, or any other star and its satellites. Each attracts the
other.
Newton defined this attraction mathematically. The force of attraction between
two masses is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.

Figure 2.22. Gravitational attraction is

along a line joining the centers
of mass of the two bodies.
where G is a constant, called the universal gravitational constant, m1 is the first mass, m2 is the
second mass, and r is the distance between the two masses. G is a universal constant, meaning
that it is thought to be the same everywhere in the Universe. The value G in SI units is
G = 6.67x10-11Nm2/kg2.
The gravitational force is always attractive, and it depends only on the masses involved and the distance between them. The force is
directed along the line joining the two masses, as shown in Figure 2.22. The magnitude of the force on each body is the same but the
direction is opposite, consistent with Newton’s third law, action-reaction (F12 = -F21.)
Class work
1. A 10 kg mass and a 100 kg mass are 1 meter apart. What is the force of attraction between them?
2. If a person has a mass of 60.0 kg, what would be the force of gravitational attraction on him at Earth’s surface?
2
3. Show that the value of g the surface of the earth is g = 9.8m/s

Centripetal Force
It is possible to derive Kepler’s third law from Newton’s law of universal gravitation. A force that pulls an object towards the center of a
circle is called centripetal force as shown in Figure 2.23. The source for the centripetal force in the Solar System is the gravitational force
of the Sun. Without the centripetal force from the Sun the planets would travel in a straight line. The velocity of the planets is high
enough so that they continuously accelerate towards the Sun without ever leaving their orbits. It is for this reason that the planets do not
fall into the sun from its strong gravitational force of attraction.
Applying Newton’s second law of motion to circular motion gives an expression for centripetal force.

where v is the tangential speed and r is the radius of the orbit and m is mass of the planet.
The gravitational attraction of the Sun provides the centripetal force needed to
keep planets in orbit around the Sun. Earth’s gravity keeps the Moon and all types
of satellite in orbit around Earth. Because the gravitational force provides the
centripetal acceleration of the planet, it follows that: Figure 2.23 Centripetal force constantly pulls
the object towards the center of the circle.

is mass of the planet, is mass of the sun ( 1.989 x1030kg) and v is the speed of the plane about the sun.

The orbital speed of the planet is

where T is the period of the planet about the Sun. ( )  


This equation is Kepler’s third law: the square of the period is proportional to the cube of the distance of the planet from the Sun. The
proportionality constant K takes the value:

The above equation is therefore valid for any planet. If we were to consider the orbit of a satellite such as the Moon about the Earth, the
constant would have a different value, with the Sun’s mass replaced by the Earth’s mass; that is

Class work
1. The gravitational force between a 60 kg man and Earth is not equal because Earth is more massive than the man therefore, it
exerts the greatest force. True or False.
2. Two objects are attracted to each other by a gravitational force F. If the distance between the objects is doubled, what is the new
gravitational force between the objects in terms of F ? A. 4 F B. 1/4F C. 16F D. 1/16F
3. Newton’s law of gravitation applies to: A. Small bodies only. B. Plants only.
C. All bodies irrespective of their size. D. Moon and satellites only
4. Suppose the gravitational force between two spheres is 30 N. If the magnitude of each mass doubles, what is the force between
the masses
7
5. Calculate the mass of the Sun, noting that the period of Earth’s orbit around the Sun is 3.156 x 10 s and its distance from the Sun
11
is 1.496 x 10 m.
6. A hypothetical planet has a mass of four times that of the Earth and radius of twice that of the Earth? What is the acceleration due
to gravity on the planet in terms of the acceleration on Earth?