BASIC CONCEPTS

Introduction
The force of gravity is very familiar to us. For example, it is the force that keeps us
attached to Planet earth. It is the reason why, if we throw a tennis ball up into the air,
it comes back down to earth again. Its also responsible for the orbit of the moon
around the earth, and the earth around the sun. Providing an explanation of how the
gravitational force arises is a complex and involved business. Describing the effects
of gravity and its impact on the various objects in the universe is not too difficult, but
before we do so, it is necessary to introduce some preliminary ideas, to make the job
easier.
Newtons Laws
Newtons laws provide the basis for evaluating the consequences of applied forces
on objects, at least in the classical world. In this context, the term classical can
loosely be translated to mean not too fast, not too small or not too big. In studying
gravitational effects, Newtons laws are valid, but general relativity provides a more
exact description.
Newtons laws are:
1. A body continues in its state of uniform motion if the total force acting on the body
is zero.
2. The rate of change of momentum of a body is equal to the total force acting on
that body.
3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
A fuller description of the laws can be found here.
Centripetal Force
In treating the effects of gravity, we are often interested in how the rotational motion
of an object or objects is modified. Consider a stone attached to a string, and
suppose that we swing the stone in a horizontal circle (or nearly horizontal - the string
requires some tension in the vertical direction to counteract the gravitational pull of
the stone downwards). Assume that the speed of rotation remains constant in time.
This situation is illustrated in the following figure.



We know from experience that swinging the stone in this manner sets up a tension
force in the string, and that the faster we swing the stone, the greater the tension
force. It is this tension force that keeps the stone swinging in a circular motion. If the
string were to snap, then the tension force would become zero, and the stone would
go flying off out of its circular orbit.
Now, Newtons second law tells us how to work out the tension force in the string. To
do so, we need to work out the rate of change of momentum of the stone in its
circular orbit. Since the mass of the stone remains constant in time, this problem
reduces to working out the acceleration of the stone as it rotates on the string.
(It should be noted that even though the speed of the stone might not be changing,
the stone is still subject to an acceleration because its direction of motion is
changing. Velocity, acceleration, force and momentum are what we call vector
quantities, which means that they have direction as well as magnitude. In the case of
the stone on the string, the stone is accelerated because its velocity is changing
direction, even though the magnitude of the velocity - the speed - remains constant.)
The magnitude of the acceleration can be worked out in a fairly simple way, by
computing the rate of change of the velocity of the stone with time. It can be shown
that the magnitude of the acceleration of the stone is given by


and the direction of the acceleration is along the string towards the centre of the
circle of rotation.
This acceleration is called the centripetal acceleration, and by using Newtons
second law, force = mass acceleration, the centripetal force that is required to
provide this acceleration is given by


This is the force that is required to keep the stone rotating in its circular path on the
end of the string. Clearly, the centripetal force is supplied by the horizontal
component T of the tension force in the string. The following figure illustrates this.



An alternative means of expressing the centripetal force is obtained by noting that the
speed vof the stone can be expressed in terms of the angular velocity through the
relationship


Substituting into the expression for centripetal force, we get


We will be making use of this form of the centripetal force when we come to look at
Keplers laws of planetary motion.
Angular Momentum
Angular momentum is an extremely important concept in many branches of physics,
in particular quantum mechanics and atomic physics, where the angular momentum
of the electrons in the atom determine many of the electrical and magnetic properties
of the atom. Angular momentum is also an important quantity in classical systems
where rotational motion takes place.
In the consideration of linear motion, momentum is defined as

Where M is the mass of the object under consideration, and v is the speed of the
object. For rotational motion, the angular momentum is defined in an analogous
fashion:

Where I is termed the moment of inertia of the object under consideration and is
the angular velocity. Note that the moment of inertia of an object depends on the
location of the axis about which the rotation is taking place, and is not an intrinsic
property of the object itself.
For the stone rotating on the end of a string (see the first figure of this section), the
moment of inertia is given by

It can therefore be seen that the moment of inertia depends very strongly on how far
away the mass lies from the axis of rotation. The same remains true for solid objects
that rotate about an axis that lies within the object mass.
Angular momentum enters into the rotational equivalent of Newtons second law.
The linear version states that
Applied force = rate of change of (linear) momentum
The rotational equivalent is
Applied torque = rate of change of angular momentum
Torque is equal to

Where F is the force applied about an axis and r is the distance from the axis of
rotation. Seehere for a more detailed description of the concept of torque.
The importance of angular momentum is that, like linear momentum, it is conserved if
there are no external torques acting on the system. Thus, the angular momentum of
a dynamic system remains constant if there are no external torques acting on that
system.
Application: Ice Skating
A nice example of angular momentum conservation is how ice skaters can increase
their angular velocity of rotation by drawing in their arms. We have often seen how a
skater can rotate on the spot with arms outstretched, but when they draw their arms
in, their rotational velocity increases. This can be explained from conservation of
angular momentum.
We noted above that the moment of inertia of a rotating object (in this case the
skater) depends on how far the mass of that object lies from the axis of rotation.
When the skater has his arms outstretched, his moment of inertia is high, because
the mass of his arms lie some distance from the axis of rotation. When he pulls his
arms in, the moment of inertia decreases, because the mass of his arms is now
much closer to the axis of rotation. But the angular momentum J of the skater must
remain constant, since there are no external torques acting on him. The angular
velocity must therefore increase, since the angular momentum is given by

and the moment of inertia I has decreased.
We now have all the basic tools ready to discuss the effects of gravitation. But
before we can do this, we must discuss gravitation itself!

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