PHYS 1210 Exploring the Universe

Spring 2017
Prof. Tim Cook
Lecture #4
 Contact information
• My e-mail address is
Timothy_Cook@uml.edu.
• My office is 101B Olney Hall
• My office hours are 11:00am to 11:50am
MWF and Wednesday afternoon 1:00pm to
3:30pm
 TA Contact information

• The TA for this class is Sarah Adb El-latief

• Her address is
sarah_abdellatief@student.uml.edu.
• She is available to answer your questions
about the homework and to help you with
anything else about this class.
 Clicker details
The Clicker grades will count toward your grade
starting with lecture 7.
I've posted the grades for lectures 1 and 2 on
Blackboard. Please check that your answers are
getting through.
The clicker grades are in “lecture1”, “lecture2”, etc.
If you have registered and used a clicker check to be
sure that your grades are there.
 Class details - assignments

• There will be an on-line quiz each week starting on

January 27th.
• There is a “Practice quiz” in the week 1 folder on
Blackboard. Please take it to be sure that you understand
how quizzes work and to be sure that your
device/OS/browser is compatible.
• I will post a “Topics for study” guide in the week 2
folder. It will list a series of questions you should
understand for the quiz.
 Kepler’s 1 Lawst

• Planets move in
elliptical orbits with
the Sun at one focus of
the ellipse
 Kepler’s 2nd Law
• The orbital speed of a
planet varies so that a
line joining the Sun and
the planet will sweep
out equal areas in equal
time intervals
• The closer a planet is to
the Sun, the faster it
moves
 Question 4a
B
In the orbit to the
right, the planet is
going the slowest at C A
the:

A) brown spot
B) red spot
C) green spot D
D) blue spot
 Kepler’s 3rd Law
• The amount of time a
planet takes to orbit the
Sun is related to its
orbit’s size
• The square of the
period, P, is
proportional to the cube
of the semimajor axis,
a
 Saturn
Question 4b
Mars
Two planets, Mars and Saturn
take different amounts of time to
move through the Zodiac. Venus
Using Kepler’s third law you
can deduce that the planets.
A) Have different angular
diameters.
B) Have different semi-major
orbital axes. Mercury
C) Have different semi-minor
axis.
D) Have different eccentricities.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100731.html
 Saturn
Question 4c
Mars
Two planets, Mars and Saturn
have the same angular diameter.
Because of the way they orbit Venus
you deduce that Saturn must be
9 times further away. This
means that:
A) Mars must be 3 times smaller
than Saturn.
B) Mars must be 9 times smaller Mercury
than Saturn.
C) Mars must be 3 times larger
than Saturn.
D) Mars must be 9 times larger
than Saturn. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100731.html
 Inertia
• Galileo established the idea of inertia
– A body at rest tends to remain at rest
– A body in motion tends to remain in motion
– Through experiments with inclined planes, Galileo
demonstrated the idea of inertia and the
importance of forces (friction)
 Newton's First Law
Galileo's ideas of inertia where taken up by
Newton and are summarized as Newton's 1st
law:

“Every object persists in its state of rest or

uniform motion in a straight line unless it is
compelled to change that state by forces
impressed on it”
 Newton’s First Law

• Important ideas of Newton’s

First Law – The law implies that if
an object is not moving
– Force: A push or a pull
with constant velocity,
– The force referred to is a then a nonzero net force
net force must be present
 Question 4d
This planet is orbiting the Sun counter
clockwise. If there were no force
acting on the planet, which direction
would it travel? A

C D
Gravity is the force that holds
planets in orbit!
 Gravity
• Gravity gives the Universe
its structure
– It is a universal force that
causes all objects to pull on
all other objects everywhere
– It holds objects together
– It is responsible for holding
the Earth in its orbit around
the Sun, the Sun in its orbit
around the Milky Way, and
the Milky Way in its path
within the Local Group
 Orbital Motion and Gravity
• Although not the first to propose gravity as being
responsible for celestial motion, Newton was the first to:
– Spell out the properties of gravity
– Write the equations of gravity-induced motion
• Newton deduced that:
– The Moon’s motion could be explained by the existence of a
force (to deviate the Moon from a straight inertial trajectory) and
that such a force decreased with distance
– Orbital motion could be understood as a projectile moving
“parallel” to the Earth’s surface at such a speed that its
gravitational deflection toward the surface is offset by the
surface’s curvature away from the projectile
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravity

• Everything attracts everything else!!

 Orbital Motion Using Newton’s
First Law

• A cannonball fired at slow • A cannonball fired at a

speed experiences one higher speed feels the same
force – gravity, pulling it force, but goes farther
downward
 Orbital Motion Using Newton’s
First Law
• At a sufficiently high
speed, the cannonball
travels so far that the
ground curves out from
under it.
• The cannonball literally
misses the ground!
• The ball, now in orbit, still
experiences the pull of
gravity!
 Newton's Second Law
Newton's 1st law tells us that forces are related
to changes in motion. Newton's second law
tells us how:

Force is equal to mass times acceleration

F=ma
 Newton’s Second Law: Motion
• Motion
– An object is said to be in
uniform motion if its
speed and direction
remain unchanged
– An object in uniform
motion is said to have a
constant velocity
– A force will cause an
object to have non-
uniform motion, a
changing velocity
– Acceleration is defined as
a change in velocity
 Newton’s 2nd Law: Acceleration

• Acceleration
– An object increasing or – Acceleration is produced by
decreasing in speed along a a force and experiments
straight line is accelerating show the two are
– An object with constant speed proportional
moving is a circle is
accelerating
 Newton’s Second Law: Mass
• Mass
– Mass is the amount of matter
an object contains
– Technically, mass is a measure
of an object’s inertia
– Mass is generally measured in
kilograms
– Mass should not be confused
with weight, which is a force
related to gravity – weight may
change from place to place, but
mass does not
 Newton’s Second Law of Motion

F=ma
• Equivalently, the amount of acceleration (a)
that an object undergoes is proportional to the
force applied (F) and inversely proportional to
the mass (m) of the object
– This equation applies for any force, gravitational
or otherwise
F = ma
 Newton's Third Law

For every action there is an equal

and opposite reaction.
 Newton’s Third Law of Motion
• When two objects
interact, they create
equal and opposite
forces on each other
• This is true for any
two objects,
including the Sun
and the Earth!
 Question 4e
If the boy (B) is twice the mass of the
girl (A). When they push against each
other:
1) The boy will accelerate about 4 times
as much as the girl.
2) The girl will accelerate about 4 times
as much as the boy.
3) The boy will accelerate about twice as
much as the girl.
4) The girl will accelerate about twice as
much as the boy.
5) Both will accelerate about the same.
 Astronomical Motion

• As seen earlier, planets • Must there be a force at

move along curved work?
(elliptical) paths, or orbits. • Yes!
• Speed and direction is
changing
 Orbital Motion Using Newton’s
First Law
• At a sufficiently high
speed, the cannonball
travels so far that the
ground curves out from
under it.
• The cannonball literally
misses the ground!
• The ball, now in orbit, still
experiences the pull of
gravity!
 Measuring an Object’s Mass Using
Orbital Motion
Basic Setup of an Orbital Motion Problem
Assume a small mass object orbits around a much more massive object
For now, the massive object can be assumed at rest (very little
acceleration)
Assume orbit shape of small mass is a circle centered on large mass
Using Newton’s Second Law
Acceleration in a circular orbit is:
a = v2/r
where v is the constant orbital speed and r is the radius of the orbit
So: F = ma = m v2/r
The balancing force is that of gravity
 Newton's law of gravity and
Kepler's law

F = GMm/R2 v2 = GM/R
F = ma v = 2πR/P
ma = GMm/R2 4π2R2/P2 = GM/R
a = v2/R 4π2R3 = GM P2
mv2/R = GMm/R2 P2 = (4π2/GM)R3
 Velocity due to a hidden planet

If a star exerts a force on
a planet to pull it around
its orbit then the planet
exerts an equal and
opposite force of the star

The force on the star is
equal and opposite the
force on the planet

The planet is lighter and
moves a lot; the star is
heavier and moves a
little.
From Johnson et al (2006)
 Velocity due to a hidden planet

The period of the
motion tells us the
distance to the planet

The size of the motion
tells us the mass of the
planet.

From Johnson et al (2006)

If the orbit is more eccentric then the
curve is more complicated

Since the planets move

quickly when it is close
to the star and slowly From Johnson et al (2006)

when it is more distant,

the motion toward and
away from us is not a
simple curve. It is
“peaky” and asymmetric.

From Benedict et al (2006)

...but we can still find the orbit
 Question 4f
A star and planet exert equal
and opposite gravitational
forces on one another, but
the _______ has a greater
acceleration because it has a
_______ .
A) Star; larger mass
B) Star; larger diameter
C) Planet; smaller mass
D) Planet; smaller
diameter From Johnson et al
(2006)