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Physics
Physics (from Ancient Greek: φύσις physis "nature") is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, as well as all related concepts, including energy and force.
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Johannes Kepler: The
Laws of Planetary Motion
In the interplay between quantitative observation and theoretical construction that characterizes the development of modern science, we have seen that Brahe was the master of the first but was deficient in the second. The next great development in the history of astronomy was the theoretical intuition of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German who went to Prague to become Brahe's assistant.
Kepler and Brahe did not get along well. Brahe apparently mistrusted Kepler, fearing that his bright young assistant might eclipse him as the premiere astonomer of his day. He therefore let Kepler see only part of his voluminous data.He set Kepler the task of understanding the orbit of the planet Mars, which was particularly troublesome. It is believed that part of the motivation for giving the Mars problem to Kepler was that it was difficult, and Brahe hoped it would occupy Kepler while Brahe worked on his theory of the Solar System. In a supreme irony, it was precisely the Martian data that allowed Kepler to formulate the correct laws of planetary motion, thus eventually achieving a place in the development of astronomy far surpassing that of Brahe.
It fell to Kepler to provide the final piece of the puzzle: after a long struggle, in which he tried mightily to avoid his eventual conclusion, Kepler was forced finally to the realization that the orbits of the planets were not the circles demanded by Aristotle and assumed implicitly by Copernicus, but were instead the "flattened circles" that geometers call ellipses (See adjacent figure; the planetary orbits are only slightly elliptical and are not as flattened as in this example.)
The irony noted above lies in the realization that the difficulties with the Martian orbit derive precisely from the fact that the orbit of Mars was the most elliptical of the planets for which Brahe had extensive data. Thus Brahe had unwittingly given Kepler the very part of his data that would allow Kepler to eventually formulate the correct theory of the Solar System and thereby to banish Brahe's own theory!
1. For an ellipse there are two points called foci (singular: focus) such that the sum of the distances to the foci from any point on the ellipse is a constant. In terms of the diagram shown to the left, with "x" marking the location of the foci, we have the equation

The orbits of the planets are ellipses but the eccentricities are so small for most of the planets that they look circular at first glance. For most of the planets one must measure the geometry carefully to determine that they are not circles, but ellipses of small eccentricity. Pluto and Mercury are exceptions: their orbits are sufficiently eccentric that they can be seen by inspection to not be circles.
3. The long axis of the ellipse is called the major axis, while the short axis is called the minor axis (adjacent figure). Half of the major axis is termed asemimajor axis. The length of a semimajor axis is often termed the size of the ellipse. It can be shown that the average separation of a planet from the Sun as it goes around its elliptical orbit is equal to the length of the semimajor axis. Thus, by the "radius" of a planet's orbit one usually means the length of the semimajor axis.
Kepler's First Law is illustrated in the image shown above. The Sun is not at the center of the ellipse, but is instead at one focus (generally there is nothing at the other focus of the ellipse). The planet then follows the ellipse in its orbit, which means that the Earth-Sun distance is constantly changing as the planet goes around its orbit. For purpose of illustration we have shown the orbit as rather eccentric; remember that the actual orbits are much less eccentric than this.
Kepler's second law is illustrated in the preceding figure. The line joining the Sun and planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times, so the planet moves faster when it is nearer the Sun. Thus, a planet executes elliptical motion with constantly changing angular speed as it moves about its orbit. The point of nearest approach of the planet to the Sun is termed perihelion; the point of greatest separation is termed aphelion. Hence, by Kepler's second law, the planet moves fastest when it is near perihelion and slowest when it is near aphelion.
In this equation P represents the period of revolution for a planet and R represents the length of its semimajor axis. The subscripts "1" and "2" distinguish quantities for planet 1 and 2 respectively. The periods for the two planets are assumed to be in the same time units and the lengths of the semimajor axes for the two planets are assumed to be in the same distance units.
Kepler's Third Law implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit. Thus, we find that Mercury, the innermost planet, takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun but the outermost planet (Pluto) requires 248 years to do the same.
This equation may then be solved for the period P of the planet, given the length of the semimajor axis,
or for the length of the semimajor axis, given the period of the planet,
As an example of using Kepler's 3rd Law, let's calculate the "radius" of the orbit of Mars (that is, the length of the semimajor axis of the orbit) from the orbital period. The time for Mars to orbit the Sun is observed to be 1.88 Earth years. Thus, by Kepler's 3rd Law the length of the semimajor axis for the Martian orbit is
which is exactly the measured average distance of Mars from the Sun. As a second example, let us calculate the orbital period for Pluto, given that its observed average separation from the Sun is 39.44 astronomical units. From Kepler's 3rd Law
which is indeed the observed orbital period for the planet Pluto.
Laws of Planetary Motion
In the interplay between quantitative observation and theoretical construction that characterizes the development of modern science, we have seen that Brahe was the master of the first but was deficient in the second. The next great development in the history of astronomy was the theoretical intuition of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German who went to Prague to become Brahe's assistant.
Brahe's Data and Kepler
Kepler and the Elliptical Orbits
Unlike Brahe, Kepler believed firmly in the Copernican system. In retrospect, the reason that the orbit of Mars was particularly difficult was that Copernicus had correctly placed the Sun at the center of the Solar System, but had erred in assuming the orbits of the planets to be circles. Thus, in the Copernican theory epicycles were still required to explain the details of planetary motion.The irony noted above lies in the realization that the difficulties with the Martian orbit derive precisely from the fact that the orbit of Mars was the most elliptical of the planets for which Brahe had extensive data. Thus Brahe had unwittingly given Kepler the very part of his data that would allow Kepler to eventually formulate the correct theory of the Solar System and thereby to banish Brahe's own theory!
Some Properties of Ellipses
Since the orbits of the planets are ellipses, let us review a few basic properties of ellipses.a + b = constant
that defines the ellipse in terms of the distances a and b.2. The amount of "flattening" of the ellipse is termed the eccentricity. Thus, in the following figure the ellipses become more eccentric from left to right. A circle may be viewed as a special case of an ellipse with zero eccentricity, while as the ellipse becomes more flattened the eccentricity approaches one. Thus, all ellipses have eccentricities lying between zero and one.The Laws of Planetary Motion
Kepler obtained Brahe's data after his death despite the attempts by Brahe's family to keep the data from him in the hope of monetary gain. There is some evidence that Kepler obtained the data by less than legal means; it is fortunate for the development of modern astronomy that he was successful. Utilizing the voluminous and precise data of Brahe, Kepler was eventually able to build on the realization that the orbits of the planets were ellipses to formulate his Three Laws of Planetary Motion.Kepler's First Law:
I. The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse. |
Kepler's Second Law:
II. The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse. |
Kepler's Third Law:
III. The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their semimajor axes: |
Kepler's Third Law implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit. Thus, we find that Mercury, the innermost planet, takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun but the outermost planet (Pluto) requires 248 years to do the same.
Calculations Using Kepler's Third Law
A convenient unit of measurement for periods is in Earth years, and a convenient unit of measurement for distances is the average separation of the Earth from the Sun, which is termed an astronomical unit and is abbreviated as AU. If these units are used in Kepler's 3rd Law, the denominators in the preceding equation are numerically equal to unity and it may be written in the simple formor for the length of the semimajor axis, given the period of the planet,
Universal Law of Gravitation
Universal Law of Gravitation
What Really Happened with the Apple?
Probably the more correct version of the story is that Newton, upon observing an apple fall from a tree, began to think along the following lines: The apple is accelerated, since its velocity changes from zero as it is hanging on the tree and moves toward the ground. Thus, by Newton's 2nd Law there must be a force that acts on the apple to cause this acceleration. Let's call this force "gravity", and the associated acceleration the "accleration due to gravity". Then imagine the apple tree is twice as high. Again, we expect the apple to be accelerated toward the ground, so this suggests that this force that we call gravity reaches to the top of the tallest apple tree.Sir Isaac's Most Excellent Idea
Now came Newton's truly brilliant insight: if the force of gravity reaches to the top of the highest tree, might it not reach even further; in particular, might it not reach all the way to the orbit of the Moon! Then, the orbit of the Moon about the Earth could be a consequence of the gravitational force, because the acceleration due to gravity could change the velocity of the Moon in just such a way that it followed an orbit around the earth.This can be illustrated with the thought experiment shown in the following figure. Suppose we fire a cannon horizontally from a high mountain; the projectile will eventually fall to earth, as indicated by the shortest trajectory in the figure, because of the gravitational force directed toward the center of the Earth and the associated acceleration. (Remember that an acceleration is a change in velocity and that velocity is a vector, so it has both a magnitude and a direction. Thus, an acceleration occurs if either or both the magnitude and the direction of the velocity change.)The Center of Mass for a Binary System
If you think about it a moment, it may seem a little strange that in Kepler's Laws the Sun is fixed at a point in space and the planet revolves around it. Why is the Sun privileged? Kepler had rather mystical ideas about the Sun, endowing it with almost god-like qualities that justified its special place. However Newton, largely as a corollary of his 3rd Law, demonstrated that the situation actually was more symmetrical than Kepler imagined and that the Sun does not occupy a privileged postion; in the process he modified Kepler's 3rd Law.Newton's Modification of Kepler's Third Law
Because for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, Newton realized that in the planet-Sun system the planet does not orbit around a stationary Sun. Instead, Newton proposed that both the planet and the Sun orbited around the common center of mass for the planet-Sun system. He then modified Kepler's 3rd Law to read,Two Limiting Cases
We can gain further insight by considering the position of the center of mass in two limits. First consider the example just addressed, where one mass is much larger than the other. Then, we see that the center of mass for the system essentially concides with the center of the massive object:These limiting cases for the location of the center of mass are perhaps familiar from our afore-mentioned playground experience. If persons of equal weight are on a see-saw, the fulcrum must be placed in the middle to balance, but if one person weighs much more than the other person, the fulcrum must be placed close to the heavier person to achieve balance.
Weight and the Gravitational Force
We have seen that in the Universal Law of Gravitation the crucial quantity is mass. In popular language mass and weight are often used to mean the same thing; in reality they are related but quite different things. What we commonly call weight is really just the gravitational force exerted on an object of a certain mass. We can illustrate by choosing the Earth as one of the two masses in the previous illustration of the Law of Gravitation:Mass and Weight
Mass is a measure of how much material is in an object, but weight is a measure of the gravitational force exerted on that material in a gravitational field; thus, mass and weight are proportional to each other, with the acceleration due to gravity as the proportionality constant. It follows that mass is constant for an object (actually this is not quite true, but we will save that surprise for our later discussion of the Relativity Theory), but weight depends on the location of the object. For example, if we transported the preceding object of mass m to the surface of the Moon, the gravitational acceleration would change because the radius and mass of the Moon both differ from those of the Earth. Thus, our object has mass m both on the surface of the Earth and on the surface of the Moon, but it willweigh much less on the surface of the Moon because the gravitational acceleration there is a factor of 6 less than at the surface of the Earth.Friday, 20 May 2011
Animation1
Average vs. Instantaneous Speed
During a typical trip to school, your car will undergo a series of changes in its speed. If you were to inspect the speedometer readings at regular intervals, you would notice that it changes often. The speedometer of a car reveals information about the instantaneous speed of your car. It shows your speed at a particular instant in time.
The instantaneous speed of an object is not to be confused with the average speed.Average speed is a measure of the distance traveled in a given period of time; it is sometimes referred to as the distance per time ratio. Suppose that during your trip to school, you traveled a distance of 5 miles and the trip lasted 0.2 hours (12 minutes). The average speed of your car could be determined as
On the average, your car was moving with a speed of 25 miles per hour. During your trip, there may have been times that you were stopped and other times that your speedometer was reading 50 miles per hour. Yet, on average, you were moving with a speed of 25 miles per hour.
Animation
Direction of Acceleration and Velocity
Consider the motion of a Hot Wheels car down an incline, across a level and straight section of track, around a 180-degree curve, and finally along a final straight section of track. Such a motion is depicted in the animation below. The car gains speed while moving down the incline - that is, it accelerates. Along the straight sections of track, the car slows down slightly (due to air resistance forces). Again the car could be described as having an acceleration. Finally, along the 180-degree curve, the car is changing its direction; once more the car is said to have an acceleration due to the change in the direction. Accelerating objects have a changing velocity - either due to a speed change (speeding up or slowing down) or a direction change.
This simple animation above depicts some additional information about the car's motion. The velocity and acceleration of the car are depicted by vector arrows. The direction of these arrows are representative of the direction of the velocity and acceleration vectors. Note that the velocity vector is always directed in the same direction which the car is moving. A car moving eastward would be described as having an eastward velocity. And a car moving westward would be described as having a westward velocity.
The direction of the acceleration vector is not so easily determined. As shown in the animation, an eastward heading car can have a westward directed acceleration vector. And a westward heading car can have an eastward directed acceleration vector. So how can the direction of the acceleration vector be determined? A simple rule of thumb for determining the direction of the acceleration is that an object which is slowing down will have an acceleration directed in the direction opposite of its motion. Applying this rule of thumbwould lead us to conclude that an eastward heading car can have a westward directed acceleration vector if the car is slowing down.
Be careful when discussing the direction of the acceleration of an object; slow down, apply some thought and use the rule of thumb.
Answer2
Seymour has an average speed of
(95 yd) / (10 min) = 9.5 yd/min
and an average velocity of
(55 yd, left) / (10 min) = 5.5 yd/min, left
Answer1
The skier has an average speed of
(420 m) / (3 min) = 140 m/min
and an average velocity of
(140 m, right) / (3 min) = 46.7 m/min, right
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