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Universal Law of Gravitation?. Universal Law of Gravitation. “Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star!” 1933 Nobel prize winner, Paul Dirac, Physicist He was speaking of the far reaching effects of gravity. Universal Law of Gravitation. Universal Law of Gravitation.
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Universal Law of Gravitation “Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star!” 1933 Nobel prize winner, Paul Dirac, Physicist He was speaking of the far reaching effects of gravity
Universal Law of Gravitation Everything pulls on everything else in a beautifully simple way that involves only mass and distance Newton did not discover gravity…what Newton discovered was that gravity is universal.
Universal Law of Gravitation • F = force of gravity • M1= mass of one object • m2= mass of other object • d = distance between the centers • of the masses • G = universal gravitational • constant
Universal Law of Gravitation The force of gravity between 2 objects is actually a very weak force. Big G is 6.67 x 10-11 N-m2 • kg 2 We sense gravity only when very large masses, like the earth, are involved.
Universal Law of Gravitation • Using only pencil and paper, Neptune was discovered. • Uranus was behaving strangely despite all the calculations of Newton’s law of gravitation. Two astronomers in 1846 sent letters to observatories to search a certain part of the sky. The planet Neptune was discovered in ½ hour. • Again, Pluto was discovered the same way, because of the odd behavior of Uranus. • As the planet Jupiter approaches the planet Saturn in its orbit, it tends to deviate from its otherwise smooth path; this deviation, or perturbation, is easily explained when considering the effect of the gravitational pull between Saturn and Jupiter.
Universal Law of Gravitation “Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star!” 1933 Nobel prize winner, Paul Dirac, Physicist He was speaking of the far reaching effects of gravity