Physics
High School (11–12)
Mechanics › GravitationMechanics › Work, Energy and PowerMechanics › Circular MotionChapter 7Gravitation and Satellites
An apple falls, the Moon goes round the Earth, and the Earth goes round the Sun. Newton saw that one law of gravitation explains all three. In this chapter we start from the laws that Kepler found in the observations of the planets, we write the law of gravitation, we find how gravity changes above and below the surface, we find the energy that is needed to leave the Earth, and we study satellites, from the Moon to a weather satellite, and the weightlessness of an astronaut. Python solves the orbits and the energy.
Part of Physics · High School (11–12) (chapter 7)
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Kepler's Laws and Universal Gravitation
The planets move on ellipses, and a planet moves faster when it is near the Sun. Kepler found these rules from many years of observations, and Newton explained them with one law. In this course we study the three laws of Kepler, we write Newton's law of gravitation and find the force between two bodies, and we find how the acceleration due to gravity changes with height, with depth and with the turning of the Earth.
Gravitational Field, Potential Energy and Escape Speed
Why can a rocket leave the Earth, but a ball thrown up with the same speed as a bullet always comes back? In this course we define the gravitational field and the gravitational potential energy, we learn why the energy is negative, we find the field and the potential inside and outside a spherical shell and a solid sphere, and we find the escape speed of a planet.