i dont understand newton's law of universal gravitation. i've searched everywhere for easier explanations but i couldnt find any. can someone explain it to me so i can understand it??
2007-11-26 16:37:49 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
F=G(m1m2)/r²
What does it mean?
First let's assume you are the small mass (m2).
You double the mass of the earth (m1) and the force of gravity is twice as much and you weigh twice as much. Simple.
Instead, you double your mass (m2), again, you now weigh twice as much. But now you are also twice as big. Still pretty simple. This is just like getting fat on earth.
Ok, now for the tricky part.
Gravity varies by 1/r². This means that if you double your distance from the earth's center, you will weigh 1/4th as much. A little trickier to remember.
I personally like to think of the earth as a light bulb. The light gets spilled out in 3 dimensions. If you imagine a sphere (or a box) surrounding the light bulb, there will be a certain amount of light hitting the inside of the sphere. Now, if you double the radius of the sphere, you will make the surface area of the new sphere (or box) 4 times as big as the old sphere, which means the intensity of the light will be 1/4th as intense on the surface of the new sphere as compared to the old sphere. The inverse square law.
2007-11-26 17:22:59 · answer #1 · answered by Frst Grade Rocks! Ω 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well Newton's law of gravitation is relatively easy to undersand.
It deals with the Gravitational Attraction between two Point Objects( point object:- object having finet mass but very small sizes). If m1 and m2 are the masses of two bodies seperated by a distance 'r' the attractive force 'F' is
F=Gxm1xm2/(r^2)-- Equation
F is force of attraction between two objects having masses m1 and m2 and seperated by distance 'r' .
More information is on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_gravitation
Remember that Newtons Gravitational Law is Natural Law and holds irrespective of shape of the bodies.
Newton developed the law from Kepler's Third Law
T^2=r^3 for any astral planet in solar system.
2007-11-26 16:52:49 · answer #2 · answered by kay kay 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
On the century when Newton lived, everybody believed there was one set of laws for objects here on earth, and a different set of laws for celestial bodies. Newton came to understand that his law of gravitation applied in both domains, therefore the word universal was added to the name, to emphasize this aspect.
2016-04-06 00:10:44 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Basically: Gravity is directly related to the product of the mass of two objects, and inversely related to the square of the distance.
F=G(m1m2)/r^2
where m1 and m2 are the two masses, r is the distance between them, G is the gravitational constant, and F is the gravitational force.
(G = 6.673 x 10-11 N m2/kg2)
2007-11-26 16:45:35 · answer #4 · answered by someone2841 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋