Astronomy Study Guide
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Gravity
Define mass, weight, force, and acceleration.
Mass – A measure of the total amount of material in a body, defined either by the inertial properties of the body or by its gravitational influence on other bodies. It is proportional to, but not the same as, its mass
Force – A quantitative description of the interaction between two physical bodies, such as an object and its environment. Force is proportional to acceleration.
Acceleration – A vector quantity that is defined as the rate at which an object changes its velocity. An object is accelerating if it is changing its velocity.
State: Three laws of motion developed by Isaac Newton.
1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it; Law of Inertia.
2. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors, in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Describe relations between forces and accelerations.
F = ma where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration. This means that if you apply the same amount of force to two different objects with one mass larger than the other, the acceleration will be different.
Describe relationship between acceleration and masses.
If the mass increases, the acceleration of an object decreases if the same force is applied.
Distinguish between mass and weight and explain why one weighs different amounts of different astronomical objects.
Mass is constant anywhere in the universe. An object’s mass is the total amount of material a body contains. Weight is the acceleration of gravity on an object; on earth is it 9.87 m/s squared, on the moon the same object would weigh approximately 1/6 of what the same object would on earth.
State and explain Newton’s
Define mass, weight, force, and acceleration.
Mass – A measure of the total amount of material in a body, defined either by the inertial properties of the body or by its gravitational influence on other bodies. It is proportional to, but not the same as, its mass
Force – A quantitative description of the interaction between two physical bodies, such as an object and its environment. Force is proportional to acceleration.
Acceleration – A vector quantity that is defined as the rate at which an object changes its velocity. An object is accelerating if it is changing its velocity.
State: Three laws of motion developed by Isaac Newton.
1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it; Law of Inertia.
2. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors, in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Describe relations between forces and accelerations.
F = ma where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration. This means that if you apply the same amount of force to two different objects with one mass larger than the other, the acceleration will be different.
Describe relationship between acceleration and masses.
If the mass increases, the acceleration of an object decreases if the same force is applied.
Distinguish between mass and weight and explain why one weighs different amounts of different astronomical objects.
Mass is constant anywhere in the universe. An object’s mass is the total amount of material a body contains. Weight is the acceleration of gravity on an object; on earth is it 9.87 m/s squared, on the moon the same object would weigh approximately 1/6 of what the same object would on earth.
State and explain Newton’s