What does the Universal Law of Gravitation describe?

Answer 1

The only reason why planets orbit the sun is that the sun exerts a strong gravitational attraction on those planets. We know from Newtonian mechanics that the momentum of the planets would cause them to move in straight lines, if there was not another force that pulled them into curved orbits. Newton's law of universal gravitation gives us a formula which allows us to calculate the strength of that force.

Answer 2

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation describes the motion of all bodies, big and small, as caused by gravity and their masses. Simply stated, the force between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them. When combined with the fact that the force on a body equals its mass times its acceleration, this tells us that the acceleration of any body due to gravity is proportional to the mass of the body causing the gravity divided by the distance from its center squared.

While this may not seem so important, it was revolutionary at its time. For centuries people believed that a heavier object would have to fall faster than a lighter one, but in reality, they both fall at the same rate. In addition, it also states that all objects, even celestial ones are subject to these laws. So not only does an apple fall to the Earth but so to does the Earth to the Sun, Our solar system to other solar systems, and even galaxies towards each other. Using just this simple equation and basic physical properties, we can predict and describe the motion of nearly every body, no matter how large, in the entire universe!

Answer 3

explain that gravitational force:

- causes the planets to orbit the sun?