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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Recap on Gravitational Force. Newton's Law of Gravitation, this is the second lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Newton's Law of Gravitation, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
In our tutorial "Types of Forces I. Gravitational Force and Weight", it was explained that Gravitational Force depends on the masses of the objects involved and the distance from their respective centres of gravity. The equation of gravitational force is
where m1 and m2 are the masses of the objects involved, and R is the distance between the objects centres of gravity.
The quantity G is the gravitational constant. Its numerical value is
The above equation is the mathematical expression of Newton's Law of Gravitation, which states that:
Any particle of matter in the universe attracts any other with a force varying directly as the product of the masses and inversely as the square of the distance between them.
From this law and from the action-reaction principle, it is obvious that the interaction is mutual, i.e. gravitational force exerted by an object on another object, is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the gravitational force exerted by the second object into the first one.
What is the force by which the Sun attracts the Earth if the mass of the Sun is 1.989 × 1030 kg, mass of the Earth is 5.972 × 1024 kg and the distance from Sun to Earth is 151.95 million km.
First, we have to convert km to m and write the distance R in standard form. Thus,
Now, let's calculate the gravitational force exerted by the Sun on the Earth using the equation of Newton's Law of Gravitation. Thus,
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 8.1.2 Recap on Gravitational Force. Newton's Law of Gravitation. There are 5 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Newton's Law of Gravitation, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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