FORCES AND

UNIFORM CIRCULAR
MOTION
PHYSICS
UNIT 2
• This Slideshow was developed to accompany the textbook
• OpenStax Physics
• Available for free at https://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/college-physics
• By OpenStax College and Rice University
• 2013 edition
• Some examples and diagrams are taken from the OpenStax Physics and Cutnell & Johnson
Physics 6th ed.

Slides created by
Richard Wright, Andrews Academy
[email protected]
02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION
In this lesson you will…
• Understand the definition of force.
• Define mass and inertia.
• Understand Newton's first law of motion.
• Define net force, external force, and system.
• Understand Newton’s second law of motion.
• Understand Newton's third law of motion.
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

• Kinematics • Force
• How things move • A push or a pull
• Dynamics • Is a vector
• Why things move • Unit: Newton (N)
• Measured by a spring scale
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

1. Place a marble on your desk so that it is at rest (not moving).

2. Observe the marble for a minute. What happens to it?
3. Without applying a force to the marble, make it move. Remember gravity is a
force, so tipping the desk is the same as applying a force. Were you able to
move the marble?
4. Roll the marble across your desk at a moderate speed so that it has no
sidewise spin. Describe the path the marble took.
5. Without a sidewise spin, tipping the desk, or applying a force, can you make
the marble take a curved path?
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

Newton’s First Law of Motion

• A body at rest remains at rest, or, if in motion, remains in motion at a
constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force.
• Inertia
• Property of objects to remain in constant motion or rest.
• Mass is a measure of inertia
• Watch Eureka! 01
• Watch Eureka! 02
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

1. Make a ramp using the grooved ruler and a book.

2. Place a glass marble on your desk at the end of the ramp.
3. Release the other glass marble from the top of the ramp so that it rolls and hits the marble on the desk. Observe the
velocity of the marble that was on the desk.
4. Place a glass marble on the desk at the end of the ramp.
5. Release the metal marble from the top of the ramp so that it rolls and hits the metal marble on the desk. Observe the
velocity of the metal marble.
6. Which marble on the desk (1st or 2nd) had a larger force applied to it?
7. Which marble had the larger final velocity?
8. What was the marble’s initial velocity in both cases?
9. Define acceleration.
10. Which marble had the larger acceleration?
11. What is the relationship between force and acceleration?
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

1. Place a glass marble on your desk at the end of the ramp.

2. Release the other glass marble from the top of the ramp so that it rolls and hits the marble on the desk.
Observe the velocity of the marble that was on the desk.
3. Place a metal marble on the desk at the end of the ramp.
4. Release the glass marble from the top of the ramp so that it rolls and hits the metal marble on the desk.
Observe the velocity of the metal marble.
5. Which marble on the desk (glass or metal) had a larger force applied to it?
6. Which marble had the larger final velocity?
7. Which marble had the larger acceleration?
8. Which marble had more mass?
9. What is the relationship between mass and acceleration?
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

•Newton’s
  Second Law of Motion
• Acceleration of a system is directly proportional to and in the same direction
as the net force acting on the system, and inversely proportional to its mass.

• Net force is the vector sum of all the forces.

• Watch Eureka! 03
• Watch Eureka! 04
• Watch Eureka! 05
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

1. Take two spring scales and hook their ends together. Lay them
horizontally on the desk.
2. Gently pull on one spring scale so it reads 4 N.
3. What do the scales read for the force?
4. Apply 3-N force. What do the scales read?
5. With the scales hooked together, try to pull only one scale so that the
other one does not experience a force. Were you successful, explain.
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

• Whenever one body exerts a force on a second body, the first body
experiences a force that is equal in magnitude and opposite in
direction to the force that it exerts.
• Every force has an equal and opposite reaction force.
• You push down on your chair, so the chair pushed back up on you.
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

• A football player named Al is blocking a player on the other team

named Bob. Al applies a 1500 N force on Bob. If Bob's mass is 100
kg, what is his acceleration?
• What is the size of the force on Al?
•  If Al's mass is 75 kg, what is his acceleration?
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

• A 0.046 kg golf ball hit by a driver can accelerate from rest to 67

m/s in 1 ms while the driver is in contact with the ball. How much
average force does the golf ball experience?
 02-01 NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

• Force yourself to do these problems

• Read 4.5, 4.6, 6.5
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY
In this lesson you will…
• Define normal force.
• Apply Newton's laws of motion to solve problems involving a variety of forces.
• Use trigonometric identities to resolve weight into components.
• Understand and apply a problem-solving procedure to solve problems using Newton's laws
of motion.
• Explain Earth’s gravitational force.
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• Weight
  • Mass
• Measure of force of gravity • Not a force
• Measure of inertia or
• Objects near earth accelerate amount of matter
downward at 9.80 m/s2 • Unit: kg
• Constant
• Unit: N • Watch Eureka! 6
• Depends on local gravity
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

•• Every
  particle in the universe exerts a force on every other particle

• m and M are the masses of the particles

• r = distance between the particles (centers of objects)
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• For bodies
• Using calculus – apply universal gravitation for bodies

• Estimate (quite precisely)

• Assume bodies are particles based at their center of mass
• For spheres assume they are particles located at the center
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

•  What is the gravitational attraction between a 75-kg boy (165 lbs)

and the 50-kg girl (110 lbs) seated 1 m away in the next desk?

• Fg = N
• = lbs of force
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• Weight is Gravitational Force the earth exerts on an object

• Unit: Newton (N)

• Remember!!!
• Weight is a Force
• Watch Eureka 7
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

•• Weight
 

• r is usually RE
• So g = 9.80 m/s2
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• The gravitational pull from the moon and sun causes tides
• Water is pulled in the direction of the moon and sun

• Gravitational pull from satellites causes the main body to move

slightly
• Moon causes earth to move
• Planets cause sun/star to move
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

•  Problems-Solving Strategy
1. Identify the principles involved and draw a picture
2. List your knowns and Draw a free-body diagram
3. Apply
4. Check your answer for reasonableness
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• Free-body diagram
• Draw only forces acting on
the object
• Represent the forces with
vector arrows
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• When two objects touch there is often a force

• Normal Force
• Perpendicular component of the contact force between two
objects
FN
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• Weight pushes down

• So the table pushes up
• Called Normal force
• Newton’s 3rd Law

• Normal force doesn’t always = weight

• Draw a freebody diagram to find
equation
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

1. Hang the mass from the spring scale. The scale will measure the force applied to hold the mass in
place. This is the weight.
2. What is the weight of your mass?
3. Carefully watch the spring scale as you quickly move the scale upwards. What happens to the
weight?
4. Carefully watch the spring scale as you quickly move the scale downwards. What happens to the
weight?
5. The other weights are called apparent weight and is what you feel as the net force pulling you
down. An upward acceleration produces a _______________________ apparent weight. A downward
acceleration produces a ______________________ apparent weight.
• When a problem asks for apparent weight, find the normal force
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• A lady is weighing some bananas in a grocery store when the floor

collapses. If the bananas mass is 2 kg and the floor is accelerating
at -2.25 m/s2, what is the apparent weight (normal force) of the
bananas?

• FN = 15.1 N
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• A box is sitting on a ramp

angled at 20°. If the box weighs FN
50 N, what is the normal force
on the box?

• 47 N 20°
20°

w
 02-02 WEIGHT AND GRAVITY

• Just like gravity, these problems are attractive.

• Read 5.1
 02-03 FRICTION
In this lesson you will…
• Discuss the general characteristics of friction.
• Describe the various types of friction.
• Calculate the magnitude of static and kinetic friction.
 02-03 FRICTION

• Do the lab in your worksheet

• How is friction reduced in car engines? Hovercraft?

 02-03 FRICTION

• Normal force – perpendicular to surface

• Friction force – parallel to surface, and opposes motion

• Comes from rough surface

• Not well understood
 02-03 FRICTION

• Static Friction
• Keeps things from moving.
• Cancels out applied force
until the applied force gets
too big.
• Depends on force pushing
down and roughness of
surface
 02-03 FRICTION

•  Static Friction
• Depends on force pushing down and roughness of surface

• More pushing down (FN), more friction

• is coefficient of static friction (0.01 to 1.5)
 02-03 FRICTION

•  Kinetic Friction
• Once motion happens

• is usually less than

 02-03 FRICTION

• A car skids to a stop after initially going 30.0 m/s. k = 0.800. How
far does the car go before stopping?

W
• 57.3 m

fk

FN
 02-03 FRICTION

•  A 65-kg skier is coasting downhill on a 15° slope. Assuming the

coefficient of friction is that of waxed wood on snow, what is the
skier’s acceleration?
• downhill 𝐹  𝑁
 𝑓

15°
 
𝑤
 
 02-03 FRICTION

• While hauling firewood to the house, you pull a 100-kg wood-filled wagon across
level ground at a constant velocity. You pull the handle with a force of 230 N at
30° above the horizontal. What is the coefficient of friction between the wagon
and the ground?
 02-03 FRICTION

• Don’t let these problems cause friction between us

• Read 4.5, 5.2, 4.7
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND
EQUILIBRIUM
In this lesson you will…
• Define tension force.
• Apply Newton's laws of motion to solve problems involving a variety of forces.
• Express mathematically the drag force.
• Discuss the applications of drag force.
• Define terminal velocity.
• Determine the terminal velocity given mass.
• Apply problem-solving techniques to solve for quantities in more complex systems of forces.
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• Do the lab on your worksheet

 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• Hooke's
  Law
• For springs or forces that deform (change shape)
• For small deformations (no permanent change)

• spring constant and is unique to each spring

• the distance the spring is stretched/compressed
• Hooke's Law is the reason we can use a spring scale to measure force
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• Tension
• Pulling force from rope, chain, etc.
• Everywhere the rope connects to something, there is an identical
tension
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• Drag • For
  large objects
• Resistive force from moving
through a fluid
• Size depends on area, speed, • = drag coefficient
and properties of the fluid • = density of fluid
• = cross-sectional area of object
• = speed of object relative to the
fluid
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

•  Equilibrium
• No acceleration
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

•  Find the terminal velocity of a falling mouse in air () and a falling

human falling flat (). The density of air is .

• Mouse: 12.7 m/s

• Human: 44.4 m/s
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• The helicopter in the drawing is

moving horizontally to the right at
a constant velocity. The weight of
the helicopter is 53,800 N. The lift
force L generated by the rotating
blade makes an angle of 21.0° with
respect to the vertical. What is the
magnitude of the lift force?
• 57600 N
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• A stoplight is suspended by two

cables over a street. Weight of
the light is 110 N and the cables
make a 122° angle with each T1 122° T2
side of the light. Find the
tension in each cable.

w
• 104 N
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• A mountain climber, in the process of crossing between two cliffs by

a rope, pauses to rest. She weighs 535 N. Find the tensions in the
rope to the left and to the right of the mountain climber.
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• A 10-g toy plastic bunny is connected to its base by a spring. The spring is
compressed and a suction cup on the bunny holds it to the base so that the
bunny doesn't move. If the spring is compressed 3 cm and has a constant of 330
N/m, how much force must the suction cup provide?
 02-04 TENSION, HOOKE'S LAW, DRAG, AND EQUILIBRIUM

• The tension is mounting… I can’t wait to see what’s next!

• Read 4.8
02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES
In this lesson you will…
• Understand the four basic forces that underlie the processes in
nature.
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

• Four Basic Forces

• All forces are made up of only 4 forces

• Gravitational - gravity
• Electromagnetic – static electricity, magnetism
• Weak Nuclear - radioactivity
• Strong Nuclear – keeps nucleus of atoms together
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

• All occur because particles with that force property play catch with a different
particle
• Electromagnetic uses photons
• Scientists are trying to combine all forces together in Grand Unified Theory
• Have combined electric, magnetic, weak nuclear

• Gravity is the weakest

• We feel it because the electromagnetic cancels out over large areas
• Nuclear forces are strong but only over short distance
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

• A 1380-kg car is moving due east with an initial speed of 27.0 m/s.
After 8.00 s the car has slowed down to 17.0 m/s. Find the
magnitude and direction of the net force that produces the
deceleration.
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

•• A
  supertanker of mass kg is being towed
by two tugboats, as in the picture. The
tensions in the towing cables apply the
forces and at equal angles of 30.0° with
respect to the tanker's axis. In addition the
tanker's engines produce a forward drive
force D, whose magnitude is N. Moreover,
the water applies an opposing force R,
whose magnitude is N. The tanker moves
forward with an acceleration of m/s2.
Find the magnitudes of the tensions and .
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

• A flatbed truck is carrying a crate up

• a  10.0° hill as in the picture. The

coefficient of the static friction
between the truck bed and the crate
is . Find the maximum acceleration
that the truck can attain before the
crate begins to slip backward relative
to the truck.
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

• A window washer on a scaffold is

hoisting the scaffold up the side of a
building by pulling downward on a
rope, as in the picture. The
magnitude of the pulling force is 540
N, and the combined mass of the
worker and the scaffold is 155 kg.
Find the upward acceleration of the
unit.
 02-05 NONEQUILIBRIUM AND FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

• Electromagnetic forces are responsible for doing homework.

• Read 6.1, 6.2

 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL
ACCELERATION
In this lesson you will…
• Define arc length, rotation angle, radius of curvature and angular velocity.
• Calculate the angular velocity of a car wheel spin.
• Establish the expression for centripetal acceleration.
• Explain the centrifuge.
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Newton’s
  Laws of motion primarily
relate to straight-line motion.
• Uniform Circular Motion
• Motion in circle with constant
speed
• Rotation Angle ()
• Angle through which an object
rotates
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

•• Arc
  Length is the distance around part
of circle

• Angle Units:
• Revolutions: 1 circle = 1 rev
• Degrees: 1 circle = 360°
• Radians: 1 circle =
• Arc Length formula must use radians
and angle unit
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Convert 60° to radians • Convert 2 revolutions to

radians
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

•  Angular Velocity () • 
• How fast an object rotates

• Unit: rad/s
• CCW +, CW –
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• A CD rotates 320 times in 2.4 s. What is its angular velocity in

rad/s? What is the linear velocity of a point 5 cm from the center?
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Make a hypothesis about what A

will happen. Which path will an

object most closely follow B

when the centripetal force is

removed? C
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

1. Put the plate on a flat surface and put a marble in the ridge.
2. Push the marble in the ridge so that it travels around the plate and then out of
the removed section.
3. What is providing the centripetal force? i.e. what is keeping the marble traveling
in a circle?
4. Perform the test several times and record your results.
5. Which of Newton’s Laws explains the results?
6. This would have been more complicated if the object moved in a vertical circle.
Why?
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Object moves in circular path

• At time t0 it is at point O with
a velocity tangent to the circle
• At time t, it is at point P with a
velocity tangent to the circle
• The radius has moved
through angle 
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Draw the two velocity vectors

so that they have the same tails.
• The vector connecting the
heads is v
• Draw the triangle made by the
change in position and you get
the triangle in (b)
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

••  Since the triangles have

the same angle are
isosceles, they are similar.
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• At any given moment

• v is pointing tangent to the circle

• ac is pointing towards the center of the circle

• If the object suddenly broke from circular motion would travel in line tangent
to circle
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Two identical cars are going around two corners at 30 m/s. Each
car can handle up to 1 g. The radius of the first curve is 50 m and
the radius of the second is 100 m. Do either of the cars make the
curve? (hint find the ac)

50 m

100 m
 02-06 ANGULAR VELOCITY AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION

• Rotating too fast can make you sick, but these problems won’t.

• Read 6.3
02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES
In this lesson you will…
• Calculate coefficient of friction on a car tire.
• Calculate ideal speed and angle of a car on a turn.
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• Do the lab on your worksheet

• Are force and mass a direct or inverse relation?

• Are force and speed a direct or inverse relation?
• Are force and radius a direct or inverse relation?
• A car will skid when the centripetal force required to make it turn is
greater than the force of friction. What are two things the driver could do
to lessen the change of a skid in a curve?
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

•  Newton’s 2nd Law

• Whenever there is acceleration there is a force to cause it
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• Centripetal Force is not a new, separate force created by nature!

• Some other force creates centripetal force

• Swinging something from a string  tension
• Satellite in orbit  gravity
• Car going around curve  friction
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• A 1.25-kg toy airplane is attached to a string and swung in a circle

with radius = 0.50 m. What was the centripetal force for a speed of
20 m/s? What provides the Fc?

• Fc = 1000 N
• Tension in the string
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• What affects Fc more: a change in mass, a change in radius, or a

change in speed?

• A change in speed since it is squared and the others aren’t.

 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• When a car travels around an unbanked curve, static friction

provides the centripetal force.

• By banking a curve, this reliance on friction can be eliminated for a

given speed.
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• A car travels around a friction free banked

curve
• Normal Force is perpendicular to road
• x component (towards center of circle)
gives centripetal force

••  y component (up) cancels the weight of the

car
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

••  Divide the x by the y

• Gives

• Notice mass is not involved

 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• In the Daytona International Speedway, the corner is banked at 31 and r =

316 m. What is the speed that this corner was designed for?

• v = 43 m/s = 96 mph
• Cars go 195 mph around the curve. How?
• Friction provides the rest of the centripetal force
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• Why do objects seem to fly away from circular motion?

• They really go in a straight line according to Newton's First Law.

 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• How does the spin cycle in a washing machine work?

• The drum’s normal forces makes the clothes to travel in a circle.

The water can go through the holes, so it goes in a straight line. The
water is not spun out, the clothes are moved away from the water.
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

Remember the good old days when cars were big, the seats were
vinyl bench seats, and there were no seat belts? Well when a guy
would take a girl out on a date and he wanted to get cozy, he would
put his arm on the back of the seat then make a right hand turn. The
car and the guy would turn since the tires and steering wheel
provided the centripetal force. The friction between the seat and the
girl was not enough, so the girl would continue in a straight path
while the car turned underneath her. She would end up in the guy’s
arms.
 02-07 CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND BANKED CURVES

• There is a real force to make you do these problems.

• Read 6.5
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS
In this lesson you will…
• Explain Earth’s gravitational force.
• Describe the gravitational effect of the Moon on Earth.
• Discuss weightlessness in space.
• State Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

• Do the lab on your worksheet

• What effect did moving the pins have on the eccentricity?

• The earth’s orbit eccentricity is about 0.0167. One of these ellipses
has an eccentricity of 0.0167. Which is it?
• Does the ovalness of the earth’s orbit cause the seasons as based on
the shape of the earth’s orbit from this lab?
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

• Satellites
• Any object orbiting another object only under the influence of
gravity
• Gravity provides the centripetal force
• There is only one speed that a satellite can have if the satellite is
to remain in an orbit with a fixed radius.
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

•  Why only one speed?

•

• r is measured from the center of the earth

 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

• 
• Since 1/r
• As r decreases, v increases
• Mass of the satellite is not in the equation, so speed of a massive
satellite = the speed of a tiny satellite
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

• Calculate the speed of a satellite 500 km above the earth’s surface.

 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

•  Find the mass of a black hole where the matter orbiting it at r = m

move at speed of 7,520,000 m/s.
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

• Astronauts in the space shuttles and

international space station seem to
float

• They appear weightless

• They are really falling

• Acceleration is about g towards
earth
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

… they were finally able to close and repressurize the hatch.

Several months later a new team of cosmonauts returned and
found the hatch impossible to permanently repair. Instead they
attached a set of clamps to secure it in place.
It is this set of clamps that Linenger and Tsibliyev are staring
at uneasily seven years later. To his relief, the commander opens
the hatch Without incident and crawls outside onto an adjoining
ladder just after nine o’clock. Linenger begins to follow. Outside
the Sun is rising. The Russians have planned the EVA at a sunrise
so as to get the longest period of light. But because of that,
Linenger’s first view of space is straight into the blazing Sun.
“The first view I got was just blinding rays coming at me,”
Linenger told his postflight debriefing session. “Even with my
gold visor down, it was just blinding. [I] was basically unable to
see for the first three or four minutes going out the hatch.”
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

The situation only gets worse once his eyes clear.

Exiting the airlock, Linenger climbs out onto a
horizontal ladder that stretches out along the side of
the module into the darkness. Glancing about, trying
in vain to get his bearings, he is suddenly hit by an
overwhelming sense that he is falling, as if from a
cliff. Clamping his tethers onto the handrail, he fights
back a wave of panic and tightens his grip on the
ladder. But he still can’t shake the feeling that he is
plummeting through space at eighteen thousand
miles an hour. His mind races.
You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re not going to fall. The
bottom is way far away.
 02-08 SATELLITES AND KEPLER’S LAWS

And now a second, even more intense feeling

washes over him: He’s not just plunging off a cliff.
The entire cliff is crumbling away. “It wasn’t just me
falling, but everything was falling, which gave [me]
even a more unsettling feeling,” Linenger told his
debriefers. “So, it was like you had to overcome
forty years or whatever of life experiences that
[you] don’t let go when everything falls. It was a
very strong, almost overwhelming sensation that
you just had to control. And I was able to control it,
and I was glad I was able to control it. But I could
see where it could have put me over the edge.”
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The disorientation is paralyzing. There is no up, no

down, no side. There is only three-dimensional space. It
is an entirely different sensation from spacewalking on
the shuttle, where the astronauts are surrounded on
three sides by a cargo bay. And it feels nothing—nothing
—like the Star City pool. Linenger is an ant on the side
of a falling apple, hurtling through space at eighteen
thousand miles an hour, acutely aware what will happen
if his Russian-made tethers break. As he clings to the
thin railing, he tries not to think about the handrail on
Kvant that came apart during a cosmonaut’s spacewalk
in the early days of Mir. Loose bolts, the Russians said.
Loose bolts.
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• After studying motion of planets, Kepler came up with his laws of

planetary motion
• Newton then proved them all using his Universal Law of Gravitation
• Assumptions:
• A small mass, m, orbits much larger mass, M, so we can use M as
an approximate inertia reference frame
• The system is isolated
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1. The orbit of each planet

about the Sun is an ellipse
with the sun at one focus.
Watch video Kepler’s First Law
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2. Each planet moves so that an

imaginary line drawn from
the sun to the planet sweeps
out equal areas in equal
times.
Watch video Kepler’s Second
Law
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•3.  The ratio of the squares of •  These laws work for all
the periods of any two satellites
planets about the sun is • For circular orbits
equal to the ratio of the
cubes of their average 
distances from the sun.
• Table 6.2 gives data about the
planets and moons
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•  Use the data of Mars in Table 6.2 to find the mass of sun.
Mars, km, y
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• Draw an ellipse around your answers to these homework problems