Astronomy 1021 Lecture 5: Astro 1021 Lecture 5

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 1021
• Professor: Robert Cockcroft

Document Summary

Acceleration: speeding up slowing down, changing direction. Velocity: requires a direction and speed. Speed: tells us how far in a certain time. Acceleration due to gravity: earth"s gravity g = 10 m/s2, moons gravity g= 1. 7m/s2. Mass: the amount of matter in an object, measured in kg, mass does not equal weight. Acceleration is independent of mass: galileo and the leaning tower of pisa, dropped two objects with different masses and both fell at equal speeds. Mass v weight: mass= amount of matter in an object (kg, weight = downwards force that acts upon an object newton"s (n) Orbits: although something is continuously falling to the ground, its going too fast to hit the ground, it escapes the curvature of the earth, satellites are all in freefall. Gravity might be a universal force between any two masses. Gravitation as a force field: the strength of the gravitational force should be, proportional to each mass.