NATS 1945 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Gravity Well, Neutron Star

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1945
• Professor: Robin Metcalfe

Document Summary

Weight: the strength of gravity exerted by a planet (or moon or star, etc. ) on an object i(cid:374) the pla(cid:374)et"s g(cid:396)a(cid:448)ity field. Weight is a measure of the pull of gravity from the mass of the surface that we are sta(cid:374)di(cid:374)g o(cid:374) this (cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:271)e the ea(cid:396)th"s su(cid:396)fa(cid:272)e o(cid:396) so(cid:373)e othe(cid:396) pla(cid:374)et o(cid:396) (cid:373)oo(cid:374) Therefore, our weight on the moon will be lighter than on. Ea(cid:396)th (cid:894)6 ti(cid:373)es lighte(cid:396)(cid:895) e(cid:448)e(cid:374) though ou(cid:396) (cid:373)ass has(cid:374)"t (cid:271)ee(cid:374) (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ged. If (cid:449)e go to the moon the number of atoms in our body remains the same, what changes is the pull that the atoms feel towards the ground that we are standing on. Weight is commonly measured in units of newtons, denoted by the capital n, the n unit was named after isaac newton. On earth, a 1 kg object weighs about 10 n. Measuring newtons: we take our mass in kg and multiply by 10 to get at our weight on.