Universal Law of Gravity - Listen - 3. Concepts and History of

3. Concepts and History of Astronomy and Physics

Universal Law of Gravity

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Transcript: Newton’s master work is the universal law of gravity. Newton’s law of gravity states that every object in the universe, every particle, every planet, every star, every galaxy, attracts each other with a force that is proportional to each of the masses of two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The constant in this equation is the gravitational constant. Thus, if you have two objects in space and double the distance between them the gravity force reduces by a factor of four. If you triple the distance, the gravity force reduces by a factor of nine. If you double the mass of one or other object the gravity force doubles. The gravity force applies to everything in the universe, and it is a wonderful approximation to the way objects move through space.

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Transcript: Tycho Brahe is one of the most colorful characters in the history of astronomy. He was born into an extremely poor family and at a young age was essentially bought by his uncle, a nobleman, and so he grew up in wealth. Then, as a teenager he was lucky enough to rescue the king of...

Published 07/13/11

The Renaissance

Transcript: We tend to think of the Renaissance in terms of developments in art and sculpture in the 15th century, mostly in Italy. But the Renaissance had its start several hundred years earlier in the 13th century, and it really started in Spain with the rediscovery of ancient Greek...

Published 07/13/11

The End of Greek Science

Transcript: With the decline of Greek civilization also came the decline of science. The next dominant civilization were the Romans, and the Romans were little interested in pure science, being more interested in practical matters such as agriculture and creating the bureaucracy of their huge...

Published 07/13/11