The document discusses the principles of gravitation, including Newton's universal law of gravitation, which states that all objects attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It also covers concepts such as free fall, mass and weight, thrust and pressure, buoyancy, and Archimedes' principle, explaining their significance and applications. Additionally, it highlights the differences in gravitational acceleration at various points on Earth and the concept of relative density.
The document discusses the principles of gravitation, including Newton's universal law of gravitation, which states that all objects attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It also covers concepts such as free fall, mass and weight, thrust and pressure, buoyancy, and Archimedes' principle, explaining their significance and applications. Additionally, it highlights the differences in gravitational acceleration at various points on Earth and the concept of relative density.
The document discusses the principles of gravitation, including Newton's universal law of gravitation, which states that all objects attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It also covers concepts such as free fall, mass and weight, thrust and pressure, buoyancy, and Archimedes' principle, explaining their significance and applications. Additionally, it highlights the differences in gravitational acceleration at various points on Earth and the concept of relative density.
The document discusses the principles of gravitation, including Newton's universal law of gravitation, which states that all objects attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It also covers concepts such as free fall, mass and weight, thrust and pressure, buoyancy, and Archimedes' principle, explaining their significance and applications. Additionally, it highlights the differences in gravitational acceleration at various points on Earth and the concept of relative density.
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 8
Gravitation
Introduction
If earth can attract an apple why not moon or other celestial bodies?
If moon is attracted by earth why it does not fall towards it?
Why is earth not moving towards apple?
These are some questions which came to Newton when he saw an apple falling from a tree.
Now as force is there then why there is no acceleration? Well there
is acceleration, called CENTRIPETAL acceleration and the force which causes this is termed as CENTRIPETAL FORCE, it acts towards center.
An object moving in a circle experiences centripetal force, it
changes the direction of object at every moment.
These two points can explain the movement of planets around sun.
1. The motion of moon around the earth is due to centripetal force. The centripetal force is provided by the force of attraction of earth.
2. The earth is also attracted towards the apple by the same amount of force, in accordance with the Newton’s third law, but we cannot see it moving because acceleration is proportional to mass and mass of earth is very large in comparison to apple.
Universal law of Gravitation
Gravitational force is a UNIVERSAL FORCE; it applies to all bodies.
UNIVERSAL LAW OF GRAVITATION:
All objects attract all other objects.
The force of attraction is proportional to the sum of their masses,
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
The force is along the line joining the centers of two objects. Importance of universal law of Gravitation
The universal law of gravitation successfully explained several
phenomena which were believed to be unconnected:
The force that binds us to the earth.
The motion of the moon around the earth.
The motion of planets around the Sun.
The tides due to the moon and the Sun.
Free Fall
When a body is under the influence of Gravitational force of earth only ,
then we say that body in under free fall. Practically it is possible under vacuum only as there is always some air resistance present.
The acceleration under free fall is called ‘acceleration due to gravity’
and denoted by “g”. Earth is not a perfect sphere. As the radius of the earth increases from the poles to the equator, the value of g becomes greater at the poles than at the equator.
Motion of objects under Gravity
We take value of g constant near earth. So equations for uniformly
accelerated motion are applicable.
We have replaced “a” with “g” here. g = 9.8 m s-2
The important point here is sign convention.
Value of g is positive if acceleration is in the direction of velocity and
vice-versa.
Mass & Weight
Mass is the measure of object’s inertia, more the mass more the inertia.
It is a property of material , so it does not change with place.
SI unit is ‘kg’.
It is a scalar quantity. Weight of an object on earth is the force by which it is attracted towards earth.
As it is force so it has both magnitude and direction (i.e.
downwards).
SI unit ‘N’.
W = mass x g.
g changes with location, so does weight.
Similarly weight of an object on moon is the force by which it is attracted
towards moon. Thrust & Pressure
Thrust : Force acting on an object perpendicular to the surface is called
thrust.
SI unit is ‘N’.
Pressure : Thrust acting on a unit are is called pressure.
SI unit is ‘N m-2’ or ‘Pa’ (Pascal)
Pressure = Thrust /Area
In both the cases thrust is same as the weight of your arm is same.
Pressure in first picture is more as the surface area is less than the surface area in second picture.
The same force acting on a smaller area exerts a larger pressure,
and a smaller pressure on a larger area.
This is the reason why a nail has a pointed tip, knives have sharp edges and buildings have wide foundations.
Buoyancy The upward force exerted by fluids (liquid and gas) on objects when they are immersed in them is called buoyant force and the phenomenon is called buoyancy. Now to keep the object immersed we have to apply external force from upward direction to overcome buoyant force. When does an object float or sink?
Archimedes Principle
When a body is immersed fully or partially in a fluid, it experiences
an upward force that is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by it. If the weight of the water displaced is less than the weight of the object, the object will sink
Archimedes’ principle has many applications :-
It is used in designing ships and submarines.
Lactometers, which are used to determine the purity of a sample of milk Hydrometers used for determining density
Relative Density
The relative density of a substance is the ratio of its density to that
of water. Relative density is a ratio so it has no unit.
