Lecture Notes on Gravitation

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from a lecture on Gravitation, including Newton's and Kepler's Laws.

Gravitation

The force of attraction between any two objects in the universe.

Newton's Law of Gravitation

Describes the gravitational force between two objects, considering their masses and the distance between them.

Sir Isaac Newton

Discovered the phenomenon of gravitation after observing an apple falling from a tree; developed laws of motion and theory of gravity.

Centripetal Force

A force that acts on an object moving along a circular path, directed towards the center of the circle.

Kepler's First Law

The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the foci.

Kepler's Second Law

The line joining the planet and the Sun sweeps equal areas in equal intervals of time.

Kepler's Third Law

The square of a planet's period of revolution is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun (T² ∝ r³).

Ellipse

A curve with two focal points, where the sum of the distances to the two focal points from any point on the curve is constant.