In your opinion, how do Newton's three laws of motion lead to the law of gravitation?

Question

How can these laws be used to describe the motion of the planets in our solar system?

First correct answer gets 10 points - please note this is a 2 part question. Thanks!

I used the word 'opinion' instead of 'explanation'. My mistake.

Answer 1

Newton's Laws of Motion in no way lead to the Law of Gravitation; that's a completely separate thing.

Newton was able to combine the Law of Gravitation with the Laws of Motion, along with a little calculus (which he also invented), to show that together they resulted in Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. The 2nd Law (F=ma) was the key to the calculations, as it enabled him to calculate the gravitational force on an orbiting body. The 1st Law (inertia) was implicit in all this as it tells you you need a force to produce orbital motion. The 3rd Law (action/reaction) isn't very important when you're calculating planetary orbits because the force of the planet on the sun has a very small effect.

Answer 2

Actually, I think it was the Law of Gravitation that led to the development of the three laws of motion. The Law of Gravitation defines the force that exist between bodies of mass. The three laws of motion describes how this force will interact with the bodies.

The first law is the law of inertia. This explains why everything rotates and that why once in a stable orbit the planets don't spiral into the Sun. The second law gives a way to calculate this rotational motion. The third law tells us that in a system, bodies revolve around the center of mass. So technically the Sun and Earth revolve around each other but because the Sun is so massive the center of mass of the system is actually inside the Sun, giving the illusion that the Earth is revolving around the Sun.

Answer 3

It is not a matter of opinion. Newton's Laws of Motion do not imply a law of gravitation. They're completely separate concepts, albeit concepts that can be combined. The Laws of Motion describe the motion of anything, including the planets in the solar system moving under the influence of gravity.

Answer 4

Agreed.
1) Opinion has no place in science.
2) Newton's laws do not lead to the law of gravitation. His three laws describe the mechanics of motion and their relation to forces.

Answer 5

I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It's in the Holt's Science Textbook (Physical Science - Blue Book)