Chapter 13 - Gravitation

Newton’s law of gravitation

Acceleration due to gravity (Is this actually a constant ?)
Gravitational potential energy, revisited
Kepler’s three laws on planetary motion
Satellite motion

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Newton's Law of Gravitation

 Gravitation is the tendency for bodies to attract each

other. Every object that has mass exerts this force on
every other object with mass.
 The force is always attractive, never repulsive.
 Sir Isaac Newton (in 17th century) realized this attraction
was responsible for maintaining the orbits of celestial
bodies.
 Newton's law of gravitation defines the strength of this
attractive force between particles

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 Newton's Law of Gravitation

 The magnitude of the gravitational force

between two particles is given by:

 Where G is the gravitational constant:

 The force always points from one particle to the other. So

this equation can be written in vector form:

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 Properties of the Gravitational Force
 Forces act in pairs. Forces obey Newton’s 3rd law.

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 Properties of the Gravitational Force
 Forces act in pairs. Forces obey Newton’s 3rd law.

This is a shell, not a ring!


O

The uniform shell attracts a mass m2 which is outside

the shell as if the total mass of the shell is concentrated
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at its center, O.
 Properties of the Gravitational Force
 Earth can be considered as consisting
of concentric shells. Thus form the
position of the apple the Earth can be
considered as a point mass at O.
O

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 Properties of the Gravitational Force
 Earth can be considered as consisting
of concentric shells. Thus form the
position of the apple the Earth can be
considered as a point mass at O.
O

 When m1 is inside the shell with mass m2, the gravitational

force acting on it is zero.

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Gravitation and the Principle of Superposition

3 2

1
The net gravitational force exerted by the system of
particles at point P is the vector sum of the contributions
from each particle.

For n particles, the above become

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Gravitation and the Principle of Superposition

 For a real (extended) object, the sum of individual

forces can be replaced by an integral:

Gm1dm
where dF  rˆ
r 
2

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Practice Problem

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 Gravitation Near Earth's Surface

 Combine and

 Above gives the magnitude of the gravitational acceleration

at a given distance from the center of the Earth
 For the above calculation we assume that Earth is a
uniform sphere that is not rotating.
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 Gravitation Near Earth's Surface
Difference in gravitational force and weight due to rotation
at the equator:

Thus, the measured free-fall acceleration g is less than the

gravitational acceleration ag. This difference is greatest at equator
and approximately is equal to ag – g  0.034m/s2. 12
Gravitation inside a “uniformly dense” Earth

Let the uniform density be,

Substituting in,

Object dropped through

Earth13oscillates!
Practice Problem

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Gravitational Potential Energy

 Note that gravitational potential energy is a property

of a pair of particles
 We cannot divide it up to say how much of it
“belongs” to each particle in the pair

In chapter 8, we discussed the potential

energy U of a particle-Earth system with the
particle near the Earth’s surface, where we
assumed g as constant
However, this assumption doesn't hold as the
distance r from the Earth’s center gets larger

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Gravitational Potential Energy
Assume that an object is moving directly away from
Earth, to an infinite distance
The work done on the object by gravitational force is:
 
   Mm 
Mm 1
W   Fg  dr   G 2 cos ( 180 )dr    G 2 dr  GMm
R R
r R
r rR
1 1 1 GMm
 GMm (  )  GMm ( 0  )  
 R R R

If we take the final gravitational potential energy as

at infinity ( U   0 ), gravitational potential energy U
at a distance R from the Earth is:
GMm
U   U  W  0  U  W  U  W  
R
Gravitational Potential Energy

Gravitational potential energy is associated with the system of

objects, not a single object!
• Gravitational force F from the potential energy U :
dU d GMm GMm
F   (  ) 2
dr dr r r

• The minus sign indicates that the force on mass m points

radially inward, toward mass M
• If we have three masses m1, m2 and m3 positioned as shown in
the figure, we can use the principle of superposition to find the
potential energy U due to gravitational forces among the
objects:
 Gm1m2 Gm1m3 Gm2 m3 
U     
 r12 r13 r23 
Practice Problem

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 Escape Velocity
A projectile of mass m is fired upward at point A, the
vi projectile will stop momentarily at some height and
return to Earth
If the initial velocity is large enough, the projectile can
escape to infinity
v= 0 at r= ∞ All its kinetic energy will convert to gravitational
B m potential energy at infinity (which is 0 at infinity)
1 2 GMm EB  K  U  0
E A  K  U  mv 
2 R
1 2 GMm 1 2 GMm
E A  EB  mv  0 mv 
2 R 2 R
2GM
A
vi v is the escape velocity
R

( 2 )( 6.67 1011 )( 5.97 1024 )

For Earth, v  1.12  10 4
m/s
(b) ( 6.37 10 )
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Kepler's Laws on Planetary Motion

 The motion of planets in the solar system was a

puzzle for astronomers, especially curious motions.
 Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) derived laws of motion
using Tycho Brahe's (1546-1601) measurements

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Kepler's Laws on Planetary Motion
 First Law: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with
the Sun at one focus.
 The orbit is defined by its semi-major axis, a and its
eccentricity, e
 An eccentricity of zero
corresponds to a circle
x2 y2
2
 2 1
a b
b 2
e  1 ( )
a

 Eccentricity of Earth's orbit is 0.0167

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Kepler's Laws on Planetary Motion
 An eccentricity of zero corresponds to a circle
 Eccentricity of Earth's orbit is 0.0167

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Kepler's Laws on Planetary Motion
 Second Law: During equal time intervals, the vector r
points from the Sun to a planet sweeps equal areas.

1 1 2
ΔA  r  rΔθ  r Δθ
2 2
dA 1 2 dθ 1 2
 r  r ω
dt 2 dt 2

Consider the angular momentum, L  mr ω of the

2

planet about the focus

dA 1 2 L
 r ω  const
dt 2 2m
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Kepler's Laws on Planetary Motion

Third Law: The square of the period of any planet is

proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its
orbit.
 The law of periods for circular orbits can be written

mathematically as:

 Holds for elliptical orbits if we replace r with a, the

semi-major axis.
T 2 4π 2
3
  const 24
a GM
Practice Problem

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Satellite Motion
 When a satellite is in circular motion around the Earth,

 Thus the kinetic energy of the satellite can be

rewritten as,

Since gravitational potential energy is,

The total energy of the satellite is given by,

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Satellite Motion

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 Einstein and Gravitation

 The general theory of relativity describes gravitation

 Its fundamental postulate is the principle of
equivalence
 Gravitation and acceleration are equivalent
 The experimenter inside
this box is unable to tell
whether he is on Earth
experiencing g = 9.8
m/s2, or in free space
accelerating at 9.8 m/s2.

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Einstein and Gravitation
 Space (spacetime) is curved
 We can see why by stepping “outside” the curved
Earth, but we can't step “outside” of curved space

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 Einstein and Gravitation
 We can observe the curvature of space
 Light bends as it passes by massive objects: an effect
called gravitational lensing
 In extreme cases we observe the light coming from
multiple places, or bent into an Einstein ring

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