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Gravity
Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces, yet it is the dominant force in the universe for shaping the large scale structure of galaxies, stars, etc. The gravitational force between two masses m1 and m2 is given by the relationship: Index Gravity Concepts This is often called the "universal law of gravitation" and G the universal gravitation constant. It is an example of an inverse square law force. The force is always attractive and acts along the line joining the centers of mass of the two masses. The forces on the two masses are equal in size but opposite in direction, obeying Newton's third law. Viewed as an exchange force, the massless exchange particle is called the graviton. The gravity force has the same form as Coulomb's law for the forces between

electric charges, i.e., it is an inverse square law force which depends upon the product of the two interacting sources. This led Einstein to start with the electromagnetic force and gravity as the first attempt to demonstrate the unification of the fundamental forces. It turns out that this was the wrong place to start, and that gravity will be the last of the forces to unify with the other three forces. Electroweak unification (unification of the electromagnetic and weak forces) was demonstrated in 1983, a result which could not be anticipated in the time of Einstein's search. It now appears that the common form of the gravity and electromagnetic forces arises from the fact that each of them involves an exchange particle of zero mass, not because of an inherent symmetry which would make them easy to unify.

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Examples of Trajectories
Common misconceptions about guns: A dropped bullet will hit the ground before one which is fired from a gun.
Index As shown in the illustration of a horizontal launch, gravity acts the same way on both bullets, giving them the same downward acceleration and making them Trajectory strike the ground at the same time if the bullet is fired horizontally over level concepts ground.

Bullets fired from high-powered rifles drop only a few inches in hundreds of yards.
Fired at twice the speed of sound, a bullet will drop over 3 inches in 100 yards, and at 300 yards downrange will have dropped about 30 inches. Plug in numbers into the bullet drop calculation to see for yourself. Ammunition manufacturers contribute to this misconception by stating the drop of their

projectiles as just the extra drop caused by frictional drag compared to an ideal frictionless projectile.

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Drop of a Bullet

If air friction is neglected, then the drop of a bullet fired horizontally can be treated as an ordinary horizontal trajectory. The air friction is significant, so this is an idealization. If the muzzle velocity is v= m/s = ft/s = mi/hr = km/hr

Index Trajectory concepts

and the distance downrange is R= m= ft = yards,

Then the amount of drop of the bullet below the horizontal would be d= m= cm = inches

If the gun is fired on level ground at a height of the bullet will hit the ground in meters = To hold the drop to feet. cm =

m=

ft, then

seconds, having traveled a distance of

inches at the downrange distance R m/s = ft/s.

above would require a muzzle velocity of

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Fundamental Forces

Index Fundamental force concepts Coupling constants

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The Strong Force

A force which can hold a nucleus together against the enormous forces of repulsion of the protons is strong indeed. However, it is not an inverse square force like the electromagnetic force and it has a very short range. Yukawa modeled the strong force as an exchange force in which the exchange Index particles are pions and other heavier particles. The range of a particle exchange force is limited by the uncertainty principle. It is the strongest of Fundamental the four fundamental forces force concepts Since the protons and neutrons which make up the nucleus are themselves considered to be made up of quarks, and the quarks are considered to be held together by the color force, the strong force between nucleons may be considered to be a residual color force. In the standard model, therefore, the basic exchange particle is the gluon which mediates the forces between quarks. Since the individual gluons and quarks are contained within the proton or neutron, the masses attributed to them cannot be used in the range relationship to predict the range of the force. When something is viewed as emerging from a proton or neutron, then it must be at least a quark-antiquark pair, so it is then plausible that the pion as the lightest meson should serve as a predictor of the maximum range of the strong force between nucleons.

The sketch is an attempt to show one of many forms the gluon interaction between nucleons could take, this one involving up-antiup pair production and annililation and producing a - bridging the nucleons. Feynman diagrams and the strong force

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The Electromagnetic Force

Index Fundamental force concepts

One of the four fundamental forces, the electromagnetic force manifests itself through the forces between charges (Coulomb's Law) and the magnetic force, both of which are summarized in the Lorentz force law. Fundamentally, both magnetic and electric forces are manifestations of an exchange force involving the exchange of photons . The quantum approach to the electromagnetic force is called quantum electrodynamics or QED. The electromagnetic force is a force of infinite range which obeys the inverse square law, and is of the same form as the gravity force.

The electromagnetic force holds atoms and molecules together. In fact, the forces of electric attraction and repulsion of electric charges are so dominant over the other three fundamental forces that they can be considered to be negligible as determiners of atomic and molecular structure. Even magnetic effects are usually apparent only at high resolutions, and as small corrections. HyperPhysics***** Quantum Physics
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The Weak Force

One of the four fundamental forces, the weak interaction involves the exchange of the intermediate vector bosons, the W and the Z. Since the mass of these particles is on the order of 80 GeV, the uncertainty principle dictates a range of about 10-18 meters which is about 0.1% of the diameter of a proton. The weak interaction changes one flavor of quark into another. It is crucial to the structure of the universe in that 1. The sun would not burn without it since the weak interaction causes the transmutation p -> n so that deuterium can form and deuterium fusion can take place. 2. It is necessary for the buildup of heavy nuclei. The role of the weak force in the transmutation of quarks makes it the interaction involved in many decays of nuclear particles which require a change of a quark from one flavor to another. It was in radioactive decay such as beta decay that the existence of the weak interaction was first revealed. The weak interaction is the only process in which a quark can change to another quark, or a lepton to another lepton - the so-called "flavor changes". The discovery of the W and Z particles in 1983 was hailed as a confirmation of the theories which connect the weak force to the electromagnetic force in electroweak unification. The weak interaction acts between both quarks and leptons, whereas the strong force does not act between leptons. "Leptons have no color, so they do not participate in the strong interactions; neutrinos have no charge, so they experience no electromagnetic forces; but all of them join in the weak interactions."(Griffiths) Show Feynmann diagrams Index Fundamental force concepts Reference Griffiths Ch 2

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Feynman Diagrams for Weak Force

Index Fundamental force concepts Reference Kaufmann Ch. 29 Griffiths Ch 2

A free neutron will decay by emitting a W-, which produces an electron and an antineutrino.

When a neutrino interacts with a neutron, a W- can be exchanged, transforming the neutron into a proton and the neutrino into an electron.

This interaction is A neutron or the same as the proton can one at left since a interact with a W+ going right to neutrino or left is equivalent antineutrino by to a W- going left the exchange of a Z0. to right.

One of the four fundamental forces, the weak interaction involves the exchange of the intermediate vector bosons, the W and the Z. Since the mass of these particles is on the order of 80 GeV, the uncertainty principle dictates a range of about 10-18 meters which is about .1% of the diameter of a proton. The weak interaction changes one flavor of quark into another. For example, in the neutron decay depicted by the Feynman diagram at left above, one down quark is changed to an up quark, transforming the

neutron into a proton. The primitive vertices in the Feynman diagrams for the weak interaction are of two types, charged and neutral. For leptons they take the following form

The electron is used as an example in these diagrams, but any lepton can be substituted on the incoming side. The exit side (top) will be the same for the neutral vertex, but determined by the charge of the W in the charged vertex. Besides conserving charge, the vertex must conserve lepton number, so the process with the electron can produce an electron neutrino but not a muon neutrino. The neutral interaction is simpler to conceive, but rarely observed because it competes with the much stronger electromagnetic interaction and is masked by it. With the charged vertices, one can postulate an interaction like , e -> e, and draw a Feynman diagram for it. This interaction is not likely to be oberved because of the incredible difficulty of observing the scattering of neutrinos, but it suggests other interactions which may be obtained by rotating or twisting the diagram. With a twist of the Feynman diagram above, one can arrive at the interaction responsible for the decay of the muon, so the structures obtained from the primitive vertices can be used to build up a family of interactions. The transformation between the two Feynman

diagrams can also be seen as an example of crossing symmetry. Twisted Feynman diagrams and crossing symmetry

The charged vertices in the weak interaction with quarks take the form

So it is seen that the quark changes its flavor when interacting via the W- or W+. As drawn, this interaction cannot be observed because it implies the isolation of an up quark. Because of quark confinement, isolated quarks are not observed. But rotating the Feynman diagram gives an alternative interaction, shown below for both electron and muon products.

This suggests the weak interaction mechanism for the decay of the pion, which is observed to happen by the muon pathway.

The weak interaction in the electron form at left above is responsible for the decay of the neutron and for beta decay in general. Discussion of weak force

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Mass and Weight

The mass of an object is a fundamental property of the object; a numerical measure of its inertia; a fundamental measure of the amount of matter in the object. Definitions of mass often seem circular because it is such a fundamental quantity that it is hard to define in terms of something else. All mechanical quantities can be defined in terms of mass, length, and time. The usual symbol for mass is m and its SI unit is the kilogram. While the mass is normally considered to be an unchanging property of an object, at speeds approaching the speed of light one must consider the increase in the relativistic mass. The weight of an object is the force of gravity on the object and may be defined as the mass times the acceleration of gravity, w = mg. Since the weight is a force, its SI unit is the newton. Density is mass/volume.

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Weight
The weight of an object is defined as the force of gravity on the object and may be calculated as the mass times the acceleration of gravity, w = mg. Since the weight is a force, its SI unit is the newton. Data can be entered into any of the boxes below. Then click outside the box to update the other quantities. Index What about the weightless condition?

At the Earth's surface, where g=9.8 m/s2 :

The weight of mass The weight of mass

kg is slugs is

Newtons pounds

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Weightlessness
While the actual weight of a person is determined by his mass and the acceleration of gravity, one's "perceived weight" or "effective weight" comes from the fact that he is supported by floor, chair, etc. If all support is removed suddenly and the person begins to fall freely, he feels suddenly "weightless" so weightlessness refers to a state of being in free fall in which there is no perceived support. The state of weightlessness can be achieved in several ways, all of which involve significant physical principles. Click on any of the examples for further details.

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Circular Orbit
Gravity supplies the necessary centripetal force to hold a satellite in orbit about the earth. The circular orbit is a special case since orbits are generally ellipses, or hyperbolas in the case of objects which are merely deflected by the planet's gravity but not captured. Setting the gravity force from the univeral law of gravity equal to the required centripetal force yields the description of the orbit. The orbit can be expressed in terms of the acceleration of gravity at the orbit.

Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

The force of gravity in keeping an object in circular motion is an example of centripetal force. Since it acts always perpendicular to the motion, gravity does not do work on the orbiting object if it is in a circular orbit.

Calculation

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Earth's Gravity
The weight of an object is given by W=mg, the force of gravity, which comes from the law of gravity at the surface of the Earth in the inverse square law form:

Index Gravity At standard sea level, the acceleration of gravity has the value g = 9.8 m/s2, but concepts that value diminishes according to the inverse square law at greater distances from the earth. The value of g at any given height, say the height of an orbit, Orbit can be calculated from the above expression. concepts

Above the earth's surface at a height of h = which corresponds to a radius r = gravity is g = m/s2 =

m=

x 106 m,

x earth radius, the acceleration of x g on the earth's surface.

Please note that the above calculation gives the correct value for the acceleration of gravity only for positive values of h, i.e., for points outside the Earth. If you drilled a hole through the center of the Earth, the acceleration of gravity would decrease with the radius on the way to the center of the Earth. If the Earth were of uniform density (which it is not!), the acceleration of gravity would decrease linearly to half the surface value of g at half the radius of the Earth and approach zero as you approached the center of the Earth. HyperPhysics***** Mechanics ***** Rotation
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Binary Circular Orbit

From the gravity force and the necessary centripetal force: Index If you are riding on one of the masses, the relative motion equation has the same form if you substitute the reduced mass Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

which gives the orbit equation:

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Reduced Mass
The relative motion of two objects that are acted upon by a central force can be described by Newton's 2nd Law as if they were a single mass with a value called the "reduced mass".

Index Gravity concepts

From Newton's 3rd Law : The relative acceleration of the two masses is Since a2 is negative, this can be rewritten in terms of the magnitudes of the

quantities:

Applications: Binary orbit Rotation of molecule H-D doublet

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Inverse Square Law, General

Any point source which spreads its influence equally in all directions without a limit to its range will obey the inverse square law. This comes from strictly geometrical considerations. The intensity of the influence at any given radius r is the source strength divided by the area of the sphere. Being strictly geometric in its origin, the inverse square law applies to diverse phenomena. Point sources of gravitational force, electric field, light, sound or radiation obey the inverse square law. It is a subject of continuing debate with a source such as a skunk on top of a flag pole; will it's smell drop off according to the inverse square law? Index

Applications of the inverse square law: Gravity Electric field Light Sound Radiation HyperPhysics***** Mechanics
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Inverse Square Law, Gravity

Index

As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, the gravity field Gravity can be put in the form shown below, showing that the acceleration of gravity, g, concepts is an expression of the intensity of the gravity field.

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Electric field

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Inverse Square Law, Electric

Index As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, the electric field of a point charge can be put in the form shown below where point charge Q is the source of the field. The electric force in Coulomb's law follows the inverse square law. Gravity concepts

Other applications of the inverse square Gravity Light Sound Radiation law HyperPhysics***** Electricity and Magnetism
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Inverse Square Law, Radiation

Index As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, a point radiation source can be characterized by the relationship below whether you are Gravity talking about Roentgens , rads, or rems . All measures of exposure will drop off concepts by inverse square law.

Other applications of the inverse square law

Gravity Light Sound Electric

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Gravitational Potential Energy

Gravitational potential energy is energy an object possesses because of its position in a gravitational field. The most common use of gravitational potential energy is for an object near the surface of the Earth where the gravitational acceleration can be assumed to be constant at about 9.8 m/s2. Since the zero of gravitational potential energy can be chosen at any point (like the choice of the zero of a coordinate system), the potential energy at a height h above that point Index is equal to the work which would be required to lift the object to that height with no net change in kinetic energy. Since the force required to lift it is equal to its Energy weight, it follows that the gravitational potential energy is equal to its weight concepts times the height to which it is lifted.

PE = PE =

kg x 9.8 m/s2 x lbs x ft =

m= ft lb.

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Gravitational Potential Energy

The general expression for gravitational potential energy arises from the law of gravity and is equal to the work done against gravity to bring a mass to a given point in space. Because of the inverse square nature of the gravity force, the force approaches zero for large distances, and it makes sense to choose the zero of gravitational potential energy at an infinite distance away. The gravitational potential energy near a planet is then negative, since gravity does positive work as the mass approaches. This negative potential is indicative of a "bound state"; Index once a mass is near a large body, it is trapped until something can provide enough energy to allow it to escape. The general form of the gravitational Energy potential energy of mass m is: concepts

where G is the gravitation constant, M is the mass of the attracting body, and r is the distance between their centers. This is the form for the gravitational potential energy which is most useful for calculating the escape velocity from the earth's gravity. HyperPhysics***** Mechanics
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Gravitational Potential Energy

From the work done against the gravity force in bringing a mass in from infinity where the potential energy is assigned the value zero, the expression for gravitational potential energy is Index Energy concepts

This expression is useful for the calculation of escape velocity, energy to remove from orbit, etc. However, for objects near the earth the acceleration of Gravity gravity g can be considered to be approximately constant and the expression for concepts potential energy relative to the Earth's surface becomes

where h is the height above the surface and g is the surface value of the acceleration of gravity. HyperPhysics***** Mechanics
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Gravitational Potential

Index Energy concepts

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Gravitational Potential Integral

Index Energy concepts

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Escape Velocity
If the kinetic energy of an object launched from the Earth were equal in magnitude to the potential energy, then in the absence of friction resistance it could escape from the Earth. Index If and then = = km/hr mi/hr m/s Energy concepts Gravity concepts

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Kepler's Laws
Johannes Kepler, working with data painstakingly collected by Tycho Brahe without the aid of a telescope, developed three laws which described the motion of the planets across the sky. 1. The Law of Orbits: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus. 2. The Law of Areas: A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. 3. The Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit. Kepler's laws were derived for orbits around the sun, but they apply to satellite orbits as well. HyperPhysics***** Mechanics
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Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

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The Law of Orbits

All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.

Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

This is one of Kepler's laws. The elliptical shape of the orbit is a result of the inverse square force of gravity. The eccentricity of the ellipse is greatly exaggerated here. HyperPhysics***** Mechanics
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Orbit Eccentrici ty
The eccentricity of an ellipse can be defined as the ratio of the distance Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

between the foci to the major axis of the ellipse. The eccentricity is zero for a circle. Of the planetary orbits, only Pluto has a large eccentricity. Eccentricity examples HyperPhysics***** Mechanics
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Examples of Ellipse Eccentricity

Planetary orbit eccentricities Mercury .206 Venus .0068 Earth .0167 Mars .0934 Jupiter .0485 Saturn .0556 Uranus .0472 Neptune .0086 Pluto .25 Outer planets HyperPhysics***** Mechanics Go Back Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

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The Law of Areas

A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.

Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

This is one of Kepler's laws.This empirical law discovered by Kepler arises from conservation of angular momentum. When the planet is closer to the sun, it moves faster, sweeping through a longer path in a given time.

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The Law of Periods

The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

Index Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

This is one of Kepler's laws.This law arises from the law of gravitation as discovered by Newton. Table of data

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Data: Law of Periods

Data confirming Kepler's Law of Periods comes from measurements of the motion of the planets.

Index Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus 5.79 10.8 15.0 22.8 77.8 143 287 0.241 0.615 1 1.88 11.9 29.5 84 2.99 3.00 2.96 2.98 3.01 2.98 2.98 Gravity concepts Orbit concepts

Neptune Pluto

450 590

165 248

2.99 2.99

Data from Halliday, Resnick, Walker, Fundamentals of Physics 4th Ed Extended. Table 15-3

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