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E1.5 Reading Getting A Grip On Gravity 1

Gravity is a force that acts between all masses, pulling them together. Galileo discovered through experiments that the rate at which objects fall is not dependent on their mass but rather on air resistance, challenging Aristotle's view. Newton further developed the theory of gravity by proposing that everything with mass exerts a gravitational pull, and that the acceleration due to gravity is much greater for smaller masses falling towards larger masses due to differences in inertia.

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Sean Germani
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156 views

E1.5 Reading Getting A Grip On Gravity 1

Gravity is a force that acts between all masses, pulling them together. Galileo discovered through experiments that the rate at which objects fall is not dependent on their mass but rather on air resistance, challenging Aristotle's view. Newton further developed the theory of gravity by proposing that everything with mass exerts a gravitational pull, and that the acceleration due to gravity is much greater for smaller masses falling towards larger masses due to differences in inertia.

Uploaded by

Sean Germani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Gravity n.

Unit E1 • Potential and Kinetic Energy


A force that acts betwee
GETTING A GRIP ON GRAVITY n all masses,
pulling them together.
Is the definition helpful?
All through history people have asked the same questions, like “What's for
dinner?” and “Why do things fall?” Aristotle, who lived in Athens almost Sort of.
2,500 years ago, argued that the center of the Earth was the center of the Not really.
universe. So naturally everything tended to fall in that direction! Wrong on
TWO counts. He also thought that heavier things fell faster than lighter Seriously?
things. Well, you could see how he would think that. Try dropping a
piece of paper and a book. The book hit the floor first, right? But
not because of gravity and not because it is heavier.

WHAT?
Here is where Galileo comes in. He carefully dropped balls from
towers and rolled them down inclines. He stated that the reason
your book drops faster than your paper is not due to their
difference in mass, but rather because air resistance (friction)
affects the falls differently.

Explore Galileo’s idea.

Step 1: Go to the moon.

Step 2: Drop a feather and a hammer at the same time.

Oh, going to moon is not in your budget? Well, watch this video of
an astronaut who tried it out:

http://serpmedia.org/scigen/e1.5c.html

As great as Galileo was, Isaac Newton was the one who really hit it out of the
park with this idea: he said that gravity is not just about the Earth pulling things,
but rather that everything that has mass creates a gravitational force.
Consider an apple and the planet Earth.
Newton said that the apple is pulling on the Earth in exactly the same way as the
Earth is pulling on the apple.

Huh?
Then, you might ask, “Why doesn’t the Earth fall up to the apple?” Well, the
answer to that is...
It does.

Huh??
Just not very much. Actually, it’s an immeasurably small distance.
So, how can the apple and the Earth react to equal forces so differently?
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To understand this, think about applying an
equal force to two things with very different
masses.
1. Think about flicking a paper clip with
your fingers.

2. Think about flicking a parked car with


your fingers.

Why wouldn’t the car move as much as the paper clip??

INERTIA.
Massive things have more mass (duh!), more gravitational force, and more inertia. If you think that car was hard to move
with a flick of your fingers, just imagine how tough it would be for the apple’s gravitational field to yank the Earth up to it.
Not gonna happen!

LAST question: The acceleration of the apple dropping to the Earth


Greater than, of course! You
◻ greater than
can definitely observe that.
◻ less than
◻ about the same as
But why?
the acceleration of the Earth up to the apple.

Gravity causes the apple to move toward the Earth


and yes, the Earth to move toward the apple (good
luck observing the latter). You can measure
movement (of the apple at least) using velocity. If
the velocity changed along the way, you can
describe that as acceleration. The apple’s fall to
Earth started slow and got faster. There is all kinds
of interesting math about the details of that. Ask
your science teacher to explain more if you’re
interested. But don’t get carried away. You have to
save something for high school!!

The important thing here is to remember that when we think about


gravity, it’s easy to think about it as the Earth pulling on things. And that’s
true. The Earth does, indeed, pull on things. But keep in mind that
everything else that has mass pulls on things, too. The Earth tends to get
our attention the most because it’s the biggest thing around pretty much
everywhere we hang out!
If you compare the Earth to the Sun, the Earth is a little more like the apple
in that situation. The Earth is affected by the Sun’s gravity in a major way,
but also by all sorts of other interesting forces in the universe. (Good thing,
too...or we’d be toast! Burnt toast at that!)

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