Newton’s Law of

Universal Gravitation

AP Physics C
Mrs. Coyle
 Early Astronomy
• As far as we know, humans have always been
interested in the motions of objects in the sky.
• Not only did early humans navigate by means
of the sky, but the motions of objects in the
sky predicted the changing of the seasons, etc.
 Early Astronomy
• There were many early attempts both to
describe and explain the motions of stars and
planets in the sky.
• All were unsatisfactory, for one reason or
another.
The Earth-Centered Universe
• A geocentric (Earth-centered) solar system
is often credited to Ptolemy, an
Alexandrian Greek, although the idea is
very old.

Image from:
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec02.html
 Ptolemy’s Solar System
• Ptolemy’s solar system could be made to fit
the observational data pretty well, but only by
becoming very complicated.

Image from:
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec02.html
 Copernicus’ Solar System
• The Polish cleric Copernicus proposed a
heliocentric (Sun centered) solar system in the
1500’s.

Image from:
 Objections to Copernicus
• How could Earth be moving at enormous
speeds when we don’t feel it?
– (Copernicus didn’t know about inertia.)
• Why can’t we detect Earth’s motion against
the background stars (stellar parallax)?
• Copernicus’ model did not fit the
observational data very well.
 Galileo & Copernicus
• Galileo became convinced that Copernicus was
correct by observations of the Sun, Venus, and the
moons of Jupiter using the newly-invented
telescope.
• Perhaps Galileo was motivated to understand inertia
by his desire to understand and defend Copernicus’
ideas.
 Tycho and Kepler
• In the late 1500’s, a Danish nobleman named
Tycho Brahe set out to make the most
accurate measurements of planetary motions
to date, in order to validate his own ideas of
planetary motion.
 Tycho and Kepler
• Tycho’s data was successfully interpreted by
the German mathematician and scientist
Johannes Kepler in the early 1600’s.
 Kepler’s Laws
• Kepler determined that the orbits of the
planets were not perfect circles, but ellipses,
with the Sun at one focus.

Planet

Sun
 Kepler’s Second Law
• Kepler determined that a planet moves faster
when near the Sun, and slower when far from
the Sun.

Planet

Sun Slower
Faster
 Why?
• Kepler’s Laws provided a complete
kinematical description of planetary motion
(including the motion of planetary satellites,
like the Moon) - but why did the planets
move like that?
 Isaac Newton

• 1666, England (45 years after

Kepler).
 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?
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.
 Note
• Newton’s Law is universal, it acts between any
two masses regardless of how large (planets,
stars) or how small (particles, atoms,
neutrons) they are.

• The gravitational force is weaker than the

electrical force.
• The gravitational force is one of the 4
fundamental forces in nature.
 Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2009/07/meet_our_second_moon/400px-NewtonsLawOfUniversalGravitation.svg.png
 The Value of G.

G= 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 / kg2

Vector Form of Newton’s Law of
Universal Gravitation
m1m2
F12  G 2 rˆ12
r
 Note
• F12 = -F21 Action-reaction pair.

• Gravitation is a field force.

• Masses are considered point masses.

 Henry
Cavendish’s
experiment
determined the
proportionality
constant
G
in 1798.

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/1639/16390101.jpg
 Change of
Gravitational
Force with
Distance

• Law of universal
gravitation is known
as an inverse square
law.
Why does the moon not fall straight
down onto the earth?

2
v
The gravitational force plays the FM 
role of the centripetal force. rM
 Newton’s Law of Universal
Gravitation
• 1. Two spheres of equal mass m are a
distance d apart.
a)If the mass of one is doubled and the
distance between them is reduced to ½d,
how does the force change?
b) If both masses are doubled and the
distance is also doubled how does the
force change?
 Problem 1

• 2. Two spheres of mass 35kg are 60m

apart.
a. What force does one exert on the
other?
b. If the mass of one is tripled and the
radius is quadrupled how does the
force change?
• 3. Calculate the force of gravity
between two objects if the mass of
the first object is 12 x 103 kg, the
mass of the second object is 12 x 102
kg and they are separated by a
distance of 2 x 103 m.
• .4. Calculate the force of gravity
between two objects if the mass of
the first object is 6 x 106 kg, the
mass of the second object is 12 x 106
kg and they are separated by a
distance of 120m.
 Problem 2
• 5. 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.
• 6. A distance of 2.00 mm separates two objects of
equal mass. If the gravitational force between them
is 0.0104 N, find the mass of each object.
• 7. Determine the force of gravitational attraction
between the earth (m = 5.98 x 1024 kg) and a 70-kg
physics student if the student is standing at sea level,
a distance of 6.38 x 106 m from earth's center.
• 686 N 
•  
• 8. A woman standing on the surface of the
Earth, 6.38 x 106 m from its center, has a mass
of 50.0 kg. If the mass of the Earth is 5.98 x
1024 kg, what is the force of gravity on the
woman?
• 9. A distance of 2.00 mm separates two objects
of equal mass. If the gravitational force
between them is 0.0104 N, find the mass of
each object.
 QUIZ
1. How much force is needed to
accelerate a 40.5 kg skier
13 m/sec2 ?
2. What accelerarion will a 1.50 x 103 –kg
can experience when acted upon by a
force of
1.8 x 103 N?
 Quiz

3. Two students are sitting 1.50 m

apart. One student has a mass of
70.0 kg and the other has a mass
of 52.0 kg. What is the
gravitational force between them?
• 9. A distance of 2.00 mm separates two
objects of equal mass. If the gravitational
force between them is 0.0104 N, find the mass
of each object.