Lecture Notes Arun Jain 2018

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

Every particle attracts another particle with a force whose magnitude is given by
F=G
G = Universal Gravitational Constant
G = 6.67 10-11 Nm2 kg-2 (m3 kg-1 s-2)
 The direction of this force is along the line joining the two particles.
 The forces on the two particles are equal and opposite as per Newton’s third
law.
 The gravitational force is not altered by the presence of other bodies even if
these bodies lie between the two particles.
 Unlike electrostatic force, gravitational force is always attractive. Gravity
never repels.
 Unlike electrostatic force, gravitational force is independent of the medium
between the two particles.
 Both Gravitational and Electrostatic forces obey inverse square law.
 Both Gravitational and Electrostatic forces are both conservative forces.
Work done does not depend on path. Work done in a round trip is zero.
Potential energy is defined only for conservative forces.
 Newton’s Law of gravitation directly applies to particles only.
 We can apply it to real objects as long as the distance between these objects
is large compared to their size.

What about apple earth system?

We can apply Newton’s Law of Gravitation to apple earth system because of
Shell Theorem.

Shell Theorem:
Part 1
A uniform spherical shell of matter attracts a particle outside the shell as if the
shell’s entire mass were concerned at the center.
Part 2
A uniform spherical shell of matter exerts no net gravitational force on particles
located inside it.

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But earth is not a hollow sphere?

The earth can be thought of as a nest of hollow shells one inside another. Thus
from the apple’s point of view, the earth does behave like a particle, one that is
located at the center of the earth and has a mass equal to the mass of earth.

The earth and apple exert equal and opposite force on one another as per Newton’s
third law. If the apple is allowed to fall, the apple will accelerate with the
acceleration

And the earth will accelerate towards the apple with an acceleration

Apple

Gravitation near the earth’s surface: 0.8N

0.8N
R= radius of earth

Earth

g varies from place to place on the earth's surface

Reasons:
1. Earth is not uniform.
2. Earth is not a perfect sphere. It is flattened at the poles. The polar radius is
less than equatorial radius by 21 km.
3. Earth is rotating.

Effect of earth’s rotation on g

where latitude
At equator - = 0.034 m/s2 which is negligible compared to g and hence can be
neglected in most cases.

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# Problem: Two spherical bodies of same material and same radius 'r' are
touching each other. The gravitational force between them is proportional to
what power of 'r'.

g above the earth surface

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g inside the earth:

 A uniform spherical shell exerts no net gravitational force on a particle

located inside it. This statement does not mean that the gravitational force on
the particle from various elements of the shell magically disappears. Rather
it means that the sum of the force vectors on the particle from all elements is
zero.

Exerts no net force on particle located

inside.

So, theoretically g should decrease as we go inside the earth. But as the earth is not
uniform, g first increases then decreases.

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For r < R,

For r > R,

# Problem: Assuming the earth to be a uniform sphere of uniform density,

how much would a body weigh half way down to the center of the earth if it
weighed 100 N at the surface?

mg = 100N

How much would it weigh R/2 above the earth’s surface? [Ans : 44.44 N]

# Problem: Suppose the earth increases its speed of rotation. At what new
time period will the weight of a body at the equator become zero? Take g = 10
m/s2 and radius of earth 6400 km.
Solution: Weight will be zero where

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= 1.4 hr

Gravitational Field

The space around a body in which any other body experiences a gravitational force
of attraction is called gravitational field of the first body.
The force experienced (both in magnitude and direction) by a unit mass placed at a
point in a gravitational field is called gravitational field strength or intensity of
gravitational field at that point.

But for earth , so far earth’s gravitation are same.

Field due to point mass

r

Gravitational field due to uniform solid sphere:

At an external point
At an internal point:

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Field due to a uniform spherical shell:

At an external point

At an internal point:

Field due to a uniform circular ring at a point on its axis:

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directed towards the center of the ring. It is zero at the center of the ring and
maximum at r = (can be obtained by putting )

Potential energy:

Potential energy is energy associated with the configuration or arrangement of a

system in which a conservative force acts. Change in potential energy is the
negative of the work done by the conservative force. .

If a particle moves from xi to xf, the change in potential energy of the system is

Potential Energy is defined for only conservative force fields.

Gravitational Potential Energy:

The gravitational potential energy of a system of two particles, with mass M and m
and separated by a distance r, is the negative of the work done by the gravitational
force of either particle acting on the other if the separation between particles is
changed from infinity to r.

U = 0 when r =

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Negative sign as force is attractive

Potential energy is a property of a system of two particles and not one of the
particles. There is no way to divide this potential energy and say so much energy
belongs to one particle and so much to the other. However if m <<< M, we often
speak of potential energy of mass m. We can say this because when this potential
energy is converted to kinetic energy, it almost entirely becomes KE of m (eg., M-
earth, m-apple).

When bodies are of comparable mass, we have to assign PE to the system and not
to one of the bodies.

PE of a system of more than two particles:

The gravitational PE is the sum of the the PE of each pair of particles. For n
particles there will be (nC2) terms.
For three particles m1, m2,, m3

Gravitational Potential:
Gravitational potential is the gravitational PE per unit test mass.

To find the potential at any point, bring a test mass at the point, find potential
energy with test mass, divide the same by test mass.

1. Potential due to a point mass

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PE =

2. Potential due to a uniform solid sphere

If r > or equal to R (external point),
If r < or equal to R (internal point),
When r = R,
When r = 0,
At the center of a uniform sphere the potential has magnitude 1.5 times the
potential of the surface.

3. Potential due to uniform thin spherical shell (Hollow Sphere) :

If r >> R (external point),
If r << R (internal point), at all points inside the shell

Inside a spherical shell, force on a test mass is zero, field is zero, PE with test
mass is constant, Potential is constant (Equipotential).

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Lecture Notes Arun Jain 2018

4. Potential due to uniform circular ring at a point on its axis:

At r = 0,

Field is a vector, it is force per unit test mass.

Potential is a scalar, it is potential energy per unit test mass.

Example: Two concentric spherical shells have masses and and radii
and ( ). What is the force exerted by this system on a particle of
mass , if it is placed at a distance from the center?

Solution: The outer shell will have no contribution in the gravitational field at
point P

Thus, force on mass placed at P is,

or

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The field and the force both are towards center O.

Example: A particle of mass 1 kg is kept on the surface of a uniform sphere of

mass 20 kg and radius 1.0 m. Find the work to be done against the
gravitational force between them to take the particle to infinity.
Solution: Potential at the surface of sphere,

i.e., work is obtained to bring a mass of 1kg from infinity to the

surface of sphere. Hence, the same amount of work will have to be done to take the
particle away from the surface of sphere. Thus,

Potential Energy of a mass m at a height h above the earth

Let us find the difference in potential energy of a mass m in two particles shown in
figure. The potential energy of the system when mass m is on the surface of earth
(i.e. at B) is,

and potential energy of the system when mass m is at a height h above the surface
of earth (i.e. at A) is,

For

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Thus, is actually the difference in potential energy (not the absolute potential
energy), that too for .

Binding Energy
Total mechanical energy (potential + kinetic) of a closed system is negative. The
modulus of this total mechanical energy is known as the binding energy of the
system. This is the energy due to which system is closed or different parts of the
system are bound to each other.

Suppose the mass m is placed on the surface of earth. The radius of the earth is R
and its mass is M. Then, the kinetic energy of the particle and potential
energy of the particle is

Therefore, the total mechanical energy of the particle is,

or
Binding energy
It is due to this energy, the particle is attached with the earth. If minimum this
much energy is supplied to the particle in any form (normally kinetic) the particle
will escape the gravitational pull of earth.

Escape velocity

As we discussed the binding energy of a particle on the surface of earth kept at rest
is . If this much energy in the form of kinetic energy is supplied to the particle,
it leaves the gravitational field of the earth. So, if is the escape velocity of the
particle, then

or

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or
Substituting the value of and R (6.4 ), we get

Thus, the minimum velocity needed to take a particle infinitely away from the
earth is called the escape velocity. On the surface of earth its value is 11.2 km/s.

Maximum height attained by a particle

Suppose a particle of mass m is projected vertically upwards with a speed u and we

want to find the maximum height h attained by the particle. Then we can use
conservation of mechanical energy, i.e.,
Decrease in kinetic energy = increase in gravitational potential energy of particle.

or

Solving, we get

From this we can see that

(i) if or
(ii) if u is small then
Both the results are quite obvious.

Example: Three masses of 1 kg, 2 kg and 3 kg are placed at the vertices of an

equilateral triangle of side 1 m. Find the gravitational potential energy of this
system.
(Take )

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Solution:

Here,
and
Substituting in above, we get

or
Example: Calculate escape velocity from the surface of moon. The mass of the
moon is and radius .
Solution: Escape velocity from the surface of moon is

Substituting the values, we have

or
Example: A particle is projected from the surface of the earth with an initial
speed of . Find the maximum height attained by the particle. Radius of
earth , and .
Solution: The maximum height attained by the particle is,

Substitute the values, we have

Motion of satellites

When a satellite goes around the earth, the gravitational force of attraction provides
the necessary centripetal force.

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Orbital Speed
The necessary centripetal force to the satellite is being provided by the
gravitational force exerted by the earth on the satellite. Thus,

or
Hence, the orbital speed ( ) of the satellite decreases as the orbital radius (r) of
the satellite increases. Further, the orbital speed of a satellite close to the earth’s
surface is,

Substituting

Period of revolution

The period of revolution (T) is given by

or

or

or (as )
From this expression of T, we can make the following conclusions
1. or (which is also the Kepler’s third law)
2. Time period of a satellite very close to earth’s surface is

Substituting these values, we get

Geostationary Satellites
1. are stationary with respect to earth
2. have a time period of 24 hours

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3. have the same angular velocity as the earth

4. move in the same sense as the earth
5. are always overhead at a particular point above the equator.
6. Putting in the expression of , the radius of geostationary
satellite comes out to be , or about above
the earth's surface.

Energy of Satellite

The potential energy of the system is

The kinetic energy of the satellite is,

or
The total energy is,

or
This energy is constant and negative, i.e., the system is closed. The farther the
satellite from the earth, the greater is its total energy.

Important points

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1. Total energy of a closed system is always negative. For example, energy of

planet-sun, satellite-earth or electron-nucleus system are always negative.
2. If a particle moves in a circular orbit under the action of a force which obeys
inverse square law then

Example : Satellite earth system and electron-nucleus system.

Example: A spaceship is launched into a circular orbit close to the earth’s

surface. What additional velocity has now to be imparted to the spaceship in
the orbit to overcome the gravitational pull. Radius of earth = 6400 km, g =
9.8m/s2
Solution:

Kepler’s Laws

Kepler gave three empirical laws that accurately describe the motion of the planets.

1. Laws of orbits: All planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one
focus.
2. Laws of areas: The radius vector, drawn from the sun to a planet, sweeps
out equal areas in equal time, i.e., its areal velocity (or the area covered per
unit time) is constant. A planet moves faster when it is closer the Sun. This
is because of conservation of angular momentum.

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3. Harmonic Law / Law of Periods: The square of the planet’s time period is
proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit. This is known as
the harmonic law and gives the relationship between the size of the orbit of a
planet and its time of revolution.

Trajectory of a body projected from a height horizontally

For different velocities the paths are different. Here are the possible cases:

a) If path is a straight line from A towards O.

b) If , path is an ellipse with centre O of the earth as the distant
focus. If v is not very large the elliptical orbit will intersect the earth and the
body will fall back to earth.

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c) If , path is a circle with O as the center.

d) If , path is an ellipse with O as the nearer focus.
e) If , body escapes from the gravitational pull of the earth and path is a
parabola.
f) If , body again escapes but now the path is a hyperbola.

Here, orbital speed at A and escape velocity at A .

For cases (i) to (iv) total energy is negative, hence they are closed orbits.
For case (v) total energy is zero and for case (vi) total energy is positive.
hence they are open orbits.

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# The figure shows a uniform rod of length ‘l’ whose mass per unit length is
‘ ’. What is the gravitational force of the rod on a particle of mass ‘m’ located
at a distance‘d’ from one end of the rod?

Solution:

For a 1D body

For a 2D body

For a 3D body

When is variable

# A semicircular wire has length ‘L’ and mass ‘M”, Find the gravitational
field at the centre of the circle.

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Solution:

cancels due to symmetry

adds up.

# The density inside a solid sphere of radius ‘a’ is given by where is

the density at the surface and r is the distance from the centre.

Find the gravitational field due to this sphere at a distance 2a from the centre.

Solution:

Cannot directly apply shell theorem to the entire sphere as mass distribution is not
uniform.

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# A particle of mass ‘m’ is placed at the centre of a uniform spherical shell of

mass m and radius R. Find the gravitational potential at a distance R/2 from
the centre.

Solution:

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