Newtons PhysicsMotion and Gravity Newtons Three Laws of

Newton’s Physics—Motion and Gravity • Newton’s Three Laws of Motion – A body remains at rest or moves in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted upon by an net outside force. – The acceleration of an object is proportional to the force acting on it and dependent upon its mass. – Whenever one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts and equal and opposite force on the first body. • Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation – Fgravity = G x m 1 m 2 d 2

Newton’s Physics—Angular Momentum • Angular momentum depends upon three things 1. Speed of rotation or revolution 2. Mass 3. How spread out the mass is • Angular momentum is related to the amount of energy stored in an object due to its rotation and revolution • Angular momentum is also related to the sideways or tangential velocity of an orbiting object • Angular momentum is conserved--as the spread of mass decreases, the rotation rate must increase. • This is important to the understanding of the formation of stars and the solar system.

The Newtonian Physics of Earth Orbiting the Sun 4 3 5 Not to scale As a result, centripetal force (which means centerseeking force) due to gravity, accelerates or pulls Earth toward the Sun. Earth has less mass, less inertia, same gravitational force; thus, more easily accelerated Sun 1 E 2 Sun contains 99. 9% of mass in the solar system, tremendous inertia or resistance to acceleration. Sun and Earth experience equal and opposite forces of gravity However, due to tangential velocity as a result of angular momentum gained during formatio the solar system, the Earth moves away at the same time it is pulled toward the Sun.

Planetary configurations are defined for the location of the planets as they orbit the Sun from our point of view.

Orbital Periods for Planets • Sidereal Period – The true orbital period of a planet with respect to the background stars. • Synodic Period – The period of time that elapses between two successive identical configurations as seen from Earth (example: for Venus, greatest eastern elongation to greatest eastern elongation)

The cycle of these positions for a synodic period is different from the actual orbital period of the planet around the Sun (a sidereal period) because both the Earth and the planet orbit around the Sun.

© 1996 -2002 Scott R. Anderson Last update: 2002 October 22 Please send questions, comments, suggestions, or corrections to srca@mindspring. com.

Determining the Distances to Astronomical Objects

Parallax • Parallax view: the variation in angle that occurs when viewing a nearby object from different places. • Importance of parallax: Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe reasoned that the distance of the object may be determined by measuring the amount of parallax. A smaller parallax angle meant the object was further away.

The apparent change in the location of an object due to the difference in location of the observer is called parallax. Their views differ because of a change in position relative to the mountain

Because the parallax of the “star” was too small to measure, Tycho knew that it had to be among the other stars, thus disproving the ancient belief that the “heavens” were fixed and unchangeable. http: //www. astronomy. ohiostate. edu/~pogge/Ast 162/Movies/p arallax. gif http: //instruct 1. cit. cornell. edu/cours es/astro 101/java/parallax. h tml

Limitation to using parallax • Eventually, the parallax shift will no longer be measurable. • This is because the distance is too great for the effect to be observed.