Questions tagged [newtonian-gravity]
This tag is for the questions regarding to the Newtonian model of gravity in which the force between two objects is given by $~GMm/r^2~.$ it is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass or energy-including planets, stars, galaxies, and even light-are brought toward (or gravitate toward) one another. On Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects, and the Moon's gravity causes the ocean tides.
4,524
questions
0
votes
1
answer
12
views
Anomalous calculation about stellar collision
Suppose two bodies of mass $m$, one of them is fixed and the another is free to move,they are separated by a distance $l$ initially and the system is at rest. What would be the speed of the free body ...
0
votes
1
answer
28
views
Question on the decaying elliptical orbit of a comet, causing it to impact the earth
Is it theoretically possible for a comet, in an eighty-year elliptical orbit around the earth, to change trajectory due to a friction-like mechanism, resulting in orbital decay that will impact the ...
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
27
views
When is replacing two bodies with a single one at the centre of mass valid?
Two bodies of mass $m$ and $2m$(represented as mm) are in a circular orbit around a large body of mass $M$. The radius of $M$ is $R$ and the radius of the circular orbit of $m$ and $2m$ is $2R$. The ...
- 90
0
votes
0
answers
29
views
What distance must two objects have between them in order for them to combine their gravitational field? [closed]
What distance must two objects have between them in order for them to combine their gravitational field?
This is Gravity
- 77
0
votes
1
answer
45
views
Closed-form solution in Euler's three-body problem and generalization of it
Euler's three-body problem has a closed-form solution, but I cannot find it for it, but I've only found the equation for potential energy. What is the closed-form solution for the $x$- and $y$-...
- 101
0
votes
2
answers
32
views
Why charges don't lose potential in a resistance free loop?
If a battery to a current was like the gravity to a massive object, so the potential rise in the battery is like lifting the massive object above earth's surface, so when charges get closer to the ...
- 45
0
votes
1
answer
89
views
Gravity affects neutrons
A long time ago I asked whether gravity affected subatomic particles. An experimental physicist kindly explained that it's known to affect neutrons. Get a neutron source, and send a beam of neutrons ...
- 2,421
24
votes
9
answers
4k
views
What is the gravitational force acting on a massless body?
It's a well known fact that acceleration due to gravity is independent of the mass of the accelerating body, and only depends on the mass of the body it is accelerating towards and the distance from ...
- 520
0
votes
0
answers
30
views
Why are the orbit of planets usually ellipses? [duplicate]
There has been a similar question about planets' orbits being ellipses but the answer circulates around how the circle is a special type of orbit which doesn't really answer my question.
Elaborate ...
- 122
0
votes
1
answer
39
views
Is friction equal to gravitational force during rolling down a ramp?
I'm studying the motion and forces involved in a ball (bidimensional) rolling down a ramp inclined by an angle $\theta$ from the x-axis.
This is the body diagram (I didn't draw forces but there is ...
- 3
1
vote
1
answer
40
views
Can a rocket be taken to the edge of space with balloons so it can fly from there? [duplicate]
Can we have a (I assume very large) airship or balloon to take a rocket ship all the way to the upper atmosphere so it can use a lot less fuel from there to go to space/other planets. We could even ...
2
votes
1
answer
33
views
Gravitational Potential of a Slowly Spinning Planet
I'm working on a problem in Thorne & Blandford's Modern Classical Physics regarding the shape of a constant density, spinning planet (Exercise 13.5). It asks you to argue that the gravitational ...
0
votes
1
answer
73
views
Work done by gravitation on a system of two-body particles
Suppose we have two planets of masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ and of same radius $r$ kept a distance $d$.Owing to their gravitational force they both move and collide with each other. The system has undergone ...
- 667
7
votes
4
answers
962
views
Why is the Moon's gravity so high compared to its mass?
According to Wikipedia the Moon's mass is about 1.23% of Earth's but its gravity is 0.1654g, or 16.5%. If gravity is proportional to mass, why isn't the Moon's gravity 1.23% of Earth's?
EDIT:
...
- 575
0
votes
0
answers
13
views
Rule of thumb for estimating settling of colloid particles based on size vs $g$ force?
It is generally accepted that once undissolved particles in a solution see one of their dimensions fall below ~1 mcm zeta potential makes them reppel each other more than gravity helps them coagulate ...
- 103
0
votes
2
answers
57
views
Could gravity be used to cool down matter?
Thermal energy being the movements of particles, could we have a system that could use gravity to reduce the thermal energy of particles?
For example, if we imagine:
A box containing Argon in its ...
- 101
0
votes
4
answers
65
views
Is the total gravitational energy in the sun greater than the energy that is produced by the sum total of the nuclear fusion contained therein?
I think this is off topic, maybe an astronomy question. Unlike a chemical chain reaction or a fission chain reaction I believe fusion cannot sustain inself. Is more energy going out than is going in ...
- 177
4
votes
2
answers
175
views
Orbital velocity of a star
I am supposed to show that the orbital speed of a star is proportional with $\sqrt{r}$, where $r$ is the distance from the center of a galaxy. Suppose the galaxy's mass is equally distributed like in ...
- 47
0
votes
2
answers
48
views
Gravitational potential energy inside of a solid sphere [duplicate]
I am self-studying classical mechanics. I came across a problem which required me to calculate the gravitational potential inside of a sphere. I found in one of my textbooks that the potential energy ...
- 23
0
votes
1
answer
44
views
Bullet thought experiment continuation
So I'm sure a lot of you have heard the thought experiment where you shoot a bullet parallel to the ground, and drop a bullet at the same time and they hit the ground at the same time. Imagine now you ...
- 13
0
votes
2
answers
49
views
Trying to understand gravitational force equation
I don't understand the red underlined equations but I understand gravitational force equation in simpler form. Can anyone please explain the equations?
Source
An Introduction to Celestial Mechanics by ...
- 103
0
votes
2
answers
93
views
How come Newton's universal law of gravitation also leads to negative solution for the distance $r$?
So Newton's universal law of gravitation is:
$$F = GMm/r^2.$$
However, if I wanted to solve for distance using Newton's law of gravitation, the equation would be:
$$r^2 = GMm/F.$$
Thus if I wanted to ...
- 33
0
votes
1
answer
58
views
How do you find the distance between a massive object and its certain gravitational force?
Okay so I know I might've not phrased the question very well so I will give an example to try to make sense of it:
Say we have the moon and a place in space where the moon's gravitational force is 1,...
- 33
0
votes
1
answer
44
views
How to generate a closed orbit of celestial objects
I'm creating an orbit simulator and my planet is moving in odd elliptical orbits that aren't closed. First of all, is this even correct? Second of all, even if it is, how must I change the parameters ...
- 3
9
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Robotic arm 'Canadarm' in space that doesn't work on earth
The mechanical arm on the space shuttle, or what's called the Canadarm, can handle a 2200-kg satellite but, on the ground, it cannot support its own weight (Resnick, Halliday). Why is this?
What I am ...
- 459
0
votes
1
answer
77
views
Solution of the two-body problem
I'm self-studying Lagrangian Mechanics using Goldstein's Classical Mechanics, supplemented with Lemos's Analytical Mechanics, a modern version of the same, and Landau and Lifshitz's Mechanics. ...
0
votes
3
answers
36
views
Gravitational potential at instant of collision
Two spheres colliding that are gravitationally attracted. I want to understand what the gravitational potential between the two is at the point of collision. Is it negative or positive or zero?
This ...
1
vote
1
answer
42
views
Conic Section in Newton's Cannonball Problem
From the Classical Mechanics Lecture Notes by Helmut Haberzettl, we know that in Newtonian Mechanics, the solution to Kepler's problem can be parametrized as a conic section equation
$$r(\varphi)=\...
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
51
views
Why are inclined push ups easier?
I have been thinking and searching about this a lot and have still got all my doubts.
My main hypothesis is that, since our body is actually rotating (and not moving) during push ups, torque must be ...
- 109
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is it possible for a moon to have the same orbital period as its planet?
Is it possible for a planet to take just as long to orbit its star as a moon takes to orbit the planet? If we assume circular orbits, then
$\text{orbital period}\sim \sqrt{\frac{\text{radius}^{3}}{\...
- 223
0
votes
1
answer
35
views
Gravity in stationary space
Since 95% of the Earth's gravity remains even at an altitude of 100 miles from the surface, a spacecraft in orbit maintains balance between Earth's gravity & centrifugal force. While in orbit, ...
- 194
0
votes
0
answers
38
views
How tall can a building be on Earth? [duplicate]
This is maths IA problem
Here I have no idea how to solve this problem so any kind of help or suggestions invited
how tall can a building be on earth?
11
votes
3
answers
904
views
Does the Newtonian gravitational field have momentum analogous to the Poynting vector?
We can define the total energy of the electromagnetic field as:
$$\mathcal{E}_{EM}= \frac{1}{2} \int_V \left(\varepsilon_0\boldsymbol{E}^2+\frac{\boldsymbol{B}^2}{\mu_0}\right)dV$$
which satisfies the ...
- 995
0
votes
1
answer
43
views
Inertial to Gravitational Mass Ratio
According to Galileo's discovery the objects fall at the same rate due to the equality of inertial and gravitational masses. Where in our universe these two would not be equal? Following the question,...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
41
views
Conservation on energy in newtonian gravity
For the electromagnetic field, we can define the EM energy:
$$\mathcal{E}_{EM}= \frac{1}{2} \int_V \left(\varepsilon_0\boldsymbol{E}^2+\frac{\boldsymbol{B}^2}{\mu_0}\right)dV$$
And because charged ...
- 995
2
votes
0
answers
38
views
Question about the MATLAB gravity models
There is a graph showing the gravity values as a function of latitudes for point mass, zonal harmonic, and wgs84 gravity models at Comparing Zonal Harmonic Gravity Model to Other Gravity Models. The ...
- 107
0
votes
6
answers
71
views
Free falling bodies in the absence of external forces
We know that if two balls $B_{1}$ and $B_{2}$ having masses $m_{1}$ and $m_{2}$ respectively and suppose $m_{1}$ is sufficient greater than $m_{2}$. In daily life observation, we see that both the ...
- 27
0
votes
1
answer
36
views
Understanding the effect of gravity in the electric field inside the conductor
Purcell tells that for conductors in electrostatic condition with no charges inside the conductor , we might be tempted to say electric field should be zero. But he reasons that there might be other ...
- 193
1
vote
0
answers
89
views
What is the significance of a constant, $C$ in a damped cosine function? [closed]
I've used to fit some scattered points by an equation of damped cosine with a constant function ($(A\cos({kx})+C)e^{-Bx}$) and that equation fits better than only a damped cosine $A\cos({kx})e^{-Bx}$, ...
- 11
1
vote
4
answers
84
views
Why are fields described as force divided by mass or charge?
I have read that application of force on a body from a distance, like gravitational or electrostatic force is a two-step process, first, the field is created by the body, then, the application of ...
- 43
0
votes
0
answers
22
views
How is the time evolution of a Newtonian universe of infinite size that starts with constant mass density?
So, if we start with the description in the title, what happens in such universe (no internal stress, it is a continuum dust)? At first analysis, it seems it will remain that way, because symmetry ...
- 322
0
votes
1
answer
73
views
An object falling from very far would have varying acceleration, how can that be accounted for?
I want to have a function that describes where a falling object is.
Like this one:
h(t) = -g*t²/2
But this one is for the usual close to the surface case, where there is no variation of gravity due to ...
0
votes
3
answers
83
views
Apparent weight due to the rotation of earth
My concern here is that, if you were to calculate the apparent weight of an object due to earth's rotation at the equator, most text books use centripetal force and it works totally fine, but when it ...
- 1
3
votes
3
answers
131
views
Derivation of gravitational dynamics using Lagrangian?
The standard textbook approach in Newtonian gravitational dynamics is to derive the particle dynamics using the particle Lagrangian:
$$L = T-V = \frac 1 2 m \dot x_u \dot x_u -m\phi(x_u)\tag{1}$$
With ...
- 105
3
votes
1
answer
265
views
Can we compute\simulate why the solar system has a very small number of planets?
I saw a YouTube video saying that Earth was formed in the solar system which was initially a rotating disk of dust that kept colliding and forming larger and larger blocks.
What surprises me is that:
...
- 301
1
vote
1
answer
42
views
Pair of binary stars orbiting each other
Suppose we have a pair of binary stars orbiting around each other in their mutual gravitational field. My question is, is the trajectory of the combined system would be an ellipse?
And, if it is an ...
0
votes
1
answer
53
views
How does the moon affect the position of zero gravity in the Earth?
I am interested in the position of the point of zero gravity within the Earth as a function of the gravity of the moon. Take the example of the moonless Earth. The position of zero gravity would be ...
- 27
8
votes
3
answers
613
views
Can Kepler's laws be used to derive Newton's gravitation formula?
I know that Newton's universal law of gravitation can be used, along with his laws of motion, to derive Kepler's laws. But what about the other way around? Can Kepler's laws be used to derive Newton's ...
- 852
1
vote
0
answers
25
views
Energy of classical fields in pre-relativistic physics
In non-relativistic physics, the electromagnetic energy in all space is given by:
$$E_{em} = \frac{1}{2} \int_{\mathbb{R}^3} \left(\varepsilon_0\mathbf{E}^2 +
\frac{\mathbf{B}^2}{\mu_0}\right) \ \text{...
- 995
1
vote
1
answer
37
views
Newton's Third Law in General Relativity [duplicate]
In the Framework of Newton's laws of motion gravity is a force. Therefore when a small body falls or is deflected towards a large mass like the Earth due to the force of gravity, it is said that the ...
- 2,868