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OSUN STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF BASIC AND APPLIED SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

2024/2025 HARMATTAN SEMESTER

COURSE: GENERAL PHYSICS CODE: PHY 101 UNIT: 3

LECTURER: I.A. AKANNI

(PhD)
 3080 Course
Contents
• Newton’s law of gravitation
• Kepler’s law of planetary motion
• Gravitational potential energy
• Escape Velocity
• Satellites motion and orbits
 Newton’s Law of Gravitation
3080 What is the Universal law of gravitation?
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation states that every
r
𝑴𝟐
particle attracts every other particle in the universe with force
𝑴𝟏 directly proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
their centers. Proposed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687
(1)

G is Gravitational constant (is the mass of the first body, is the mass of the second
body, and is the distance between the two bodies.
 Law of Universal Gravitation
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Gravity varies depending on two factors: (i) The mass of an object doing the
pulling (ii) The distance from the center of that object
Example:
1.The Moon is attracted to the Earth. The mass of the Earth is and the mass of the
Moon is . If the Earth and Moon are 345,000 km apart, what is the gravitational
force between them?
2. Calculate the gravitational force of attraction between the Earth and a 70 kg man
standing at a sea level, a distance of from the earth’s center.
 Law of Universal Gravitation
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1.

2.
 Gravitational Field
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A gravitational field is a region where a mass experiences a force

due to gravitational attraction.
Note:
• A gravitational field is a region of space surrounding a body that
has the property of mass. Any other body with mass will
experience a force of attraction in this region.
• All bodies near the surface of Earth experience gravitation attraction exerted by
Earth. The gravitational force or the weight acting on a mass m, in the
gravitational field g, is given by:
F = mg (2)
 Gravitational Field
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• The direction of the gravitational field is always towards the center of the
mass, causing the field.
• Gravitational forces are always attractive.
• Gravity has an infinite range, meaning it affects all objects in the universe
• There is a greater gravitational force around objects with a large mass (such as
planets)
• There is a smaller gravitational force around objects with a small mass
(almost negligible for atoms)
 Gravitational Field
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• The gravitational field strength (gravitational acceleration) at a point is

defined as the force per unit mass experienced by a test mass at that point.
• This can be written in equation form as:

(3)

Where:
g is the gravitational field strength
F is the force due to gravity, or weight (N)
m is the mass of “test mass” in the field (kg)
 3080
Gravitational Field

Interpretation:
• An object’s mass remains the same at all points in space. However, on planets
such as Jupiter, the weight of an object will be greater than on a less massive
planet such as Earth. This means the gravitational force would be so high that
humans, for example, would not be able to stand up fully
• This is due to the increase in F, while m remains constant, ultimately leading to
an increase in g felt

Exercise: Differentiate between mass and weight

3080
Gravitational Field
A body on Earth has a much
smaller force per unit mass than on
Jupiter

This means the body will have a much

greater weight on Jupiter than on
Earth

Earth Jupiter
 3080
Gravitational Field

Mass:
• Mass is a measure of the amount of matter in an object. It is an intrinsic property
of the object and doesn’t change regardless of its location. Units: kg, g, etc.
• Has only magnitude and no direction (Scalar Quantity).
• The mass of an object is constant everywhere in the universe. Whether you are on
Earth, on the Moon, or in space.
• Mass determines how much an object resists a change in its motion. This is called
inertia. A more massive object will be harder to accelerate than a less massive
one. This is the reason regardless of mass, all objects experiences
 3080
Gravitational Field

Weight:
• Weight is the force exerted on an object due to gravity. It depends on both the
object’s mass and the strength of the gravitational field it is in. Units: N
• Has both magnitude and direction (Vector Quantity).
• Weight depends on the gravitational pull of the object’s location. For example, an
object will weigh less on the Moon than on the Earth due to weak gravitation.
• It can be estimated using Eqn. 2.
Example 3: What is the weight of a 10 kg mass stone on (i) Earth (ii) Moon. Take
 3080
Gravitational Field

Solution:
Where:
From Eqn. 2;
G = Newton’s Gravitational Constant
M = mass of the body causing the field (kg)
r = distance from the mass where you are
Since Eqn. 1 and 2 refers to the same force,calculating
equatingthe
them
fieldresults
strengthin:
(m)

(4)
(5)
 Gravitational Field
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From Eqn. 5 it can be concluded that the variables affecting the gravitational field
strength at the surface of a planet are:
1. The radius r (or diameter) of the planet
2. The mass M (or density) of the planet
• Hence, objects with any mass m in that field will experience the same
gravitational field strength
• The gravitational field strength g is inversely proportional to the square of the
radial distance,
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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• Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion are three fundamental principles that describe
the motion of planets around the Sun. They describe the motion and basic orbital
mechanics of two-point source masses.
• In the Solar System, 8 planets orbit around one mass – the Sun. As the mass of
the Sun is ~98% the mass of the entire Solar System, the gravitational forces on
planets due to the mass of the other planets are negligible.
• Therefore, the scenario can be treated mathematically as two-point source masses
when investigating the gravitational effects between the Sun and an orbiting
planet.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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• These laws were formulated by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the
early 17th century, based on the detailed observations of planetary positions made
by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.
• Therefore, the scenario can be treated mathematically as two-point source masses
when investigating the gravitational effects between the Sun and an orbiting
planet.
1. The Law of Orbits
Kepler’s 1st law: Kepler’s First Law of Planetary Motion is also known as the Law
of Ellipses, states that all planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in an elliptical
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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1. The Law of Orbits

• An ellipse is an elongated or stretched circle. Unlike a circle with a constant
radius, an ellipse has two axes.
• The semi-major axis: The longest radius of the ellipse, stretching from the center
to the farthest point on the ellipse.
• The semi-minor axis: The shortest radius, stretching from the center to the
closest point on the ellipse.
• Every ellipse has two focal points (or foci), which do not lie at the ellipse’s
center. In Kepler’s First Law, the Sun is positioned at one of these foci.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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1. The Law of Orbits

• When a planet is closer to the Sun, it is at
𝜺=𝟎 perihelion
• when it is farther away, it is at aphelion
• the general equation for an ellipse in a
coordinate system (where the Sun is located at
one of the foci) is:
𝜺 →𝟏
(6)
 3080
Kepler’s law of Planetary motion

x and y are two points on the ellipse, a is the semi-major axis (half of the longest
diameter of the ellipse), and b is the semi-minor axis (half of the shortest diameter
of the ellipse).
Summary from First Law:
• The Sun is not at the center of the planetary orbit but at one of the two foci of an
elliptical orbit.
• A planet’s distance from the Sun varies as it orbits, meaning its speed changes as
it moves closer to or farther from the Sun.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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2. Law of Equal Areas

Kepler’s 2nd law: A line drawn from the center of the Sun to the center of an
orbiting body (known as the radius vector) will sweep out equal areas in equal
intervals of time.
Interpretation:
• The planet moves faster when it is closer to the Sun (at perihelion - early
January) and slower when it is farther from the Sun (at aphelion - early July). A
consequence of the gravitational force between the planet and the Sun, which is
stronger when the planet is closer to the Sun.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Interpretation:
• To satisfy Kepler’s Second Law, the planet compensates for its faster speed near
the Sun by traveling shorter distances over the same time interval.
• When it is farther from the Sun, it moves more slowly but covers a greater
distance in that same time interval. Ensuring that the area swept by the radius
vector remains constant. Due to conservation of angular momentum.
• Mathematically expressed as;
(7)
is the differential area swept out by the radius vector, and is the differential
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Interpretation:
• time interval.
Aphelion

perihelion
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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3. Harmonic Law
Kepler’s 3rd law: The square of the period of a planet’s orbit is directly
proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit. Mathematically;
(8)
Where:
𝑇 is the orbital period of the planet, is the semi-major axis of the planet’s elliptical
orbit. The constant depends on the mass of the Sun and the units used.
• The period 𝑇 is the amount of time it takes a planet to complete one full orbit
around the Sun. For Earth 1 year, meaning it takes 365.25 days for one full orbit.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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• Mercury takes 88 days, and Saturn takes 10,759 days

• The larger the orbital period, the further the planet is from the Sun
• The semi-major axis is the distance from the center of the ellipse (the average
distance between the planet and the Sun). It is half of the longest diameter of the
ellipse. The larger the semi-major axis, the larger the orbit.
• Since Eqn. 8 is constant for all planets orbiting the same star (the Sun, in our
case), it can be inferred that for two planets;
(9)
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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E.g. for Earth and Mars: year (Earth’s orbital period); is 1 AU (Earth’s semi-major
axis); ​is orbital period of Mars and ​is semi-major axis of Mars.
• Using the third law, astronomers can predict the orbital periods of planets, even
those that haven’t been observed yet, as long as the distance from the Sun is
known.
• It can also be applied to moons orbiting planets or even artificial satellites
orbiting Earth, as long as the mass of the central body (the Sun, Earth, etc.) is
much larger than the mass of the orbiting body.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Semi-Major axis
(r)
Ellipse centre

Minor axis
(r) Semi-minor
axis (r)

Major axis (r)

 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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From Eqn. 8, the proportionality constant is;

(10)

The Law of
Periods

Example 4: Consider a planet in orbit around the Sun. If the planet’s orbit is
elliptical with a semi-major axis of 2 AU, what is the shape of the orbit based on the
axes values? Assume the eccentricity is 0.3.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Solution: Recall Kepler’s First Law states that the orbit of every planet is an
ellipse, with the Sun at one of the foci. An ellipse has two axes: a semi-major and a
semi-minor axis. describes how elongated the ellipse is.
measures the amount of divergence from a perfect circle;
(11)
Where a is the semi-major axis, and b is the semi-minor axis
;
Hence, we obtain the semi-minor axis b
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Square both sides,

Thus, the semi-minor axis b is approximately 1.91 AU. Since is 0.3, the orbit is
elliptical, but only slightly elongated.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Example 5: Teaser question: A planet in orbit around the Sun moves from position
A (at perihelion) to position B (at aphelion). If it takes 50 days to travel from A to B,
how long will it take to travel from point B to the opposite side of the orbit (from
aphelion to perihelion)?
Solution: ??
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Solution: Kepler’s Second Law (Law of Equal Areas) states that a line joining the
planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal time intervals. This means
that the planet moves faster when it is closer to the Sun (at perihelion) and slower
when it is farther away (at aphelion), but the areas swept by the radius vector are
always equal. Since the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals, it will
take the same time to travel from B to perihelion (opposite side of the orbit) as it did
from A to B. Therefore, the time taken to travel from B to perihelion is also 50 days.
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Example 6: A planet is orbiting a star with a mass of . The semi-major axis of the
planet’s orbit is . What is the orbital period T of the planet?
Solution:
From Eqn. 10

Fitting the parameters; G

Converting from AU to meters:
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Sub. The values and make T the subject of the formula;

Convert seconds to years;

years (or about 9.6 months)
 Kepler’s law of Planetary motion
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Kepler’s third law summary:

• The larger the orbit (greater semi-major axis r), the longer the planet’s orbital
period T . This relationship holds for any planet in the same star system.
• It was one of the major discoveries that laid the foundation for understanding the
dynamics of planetary motion and helped in the later development of Newton’s
law of universal gravitation.
 Gravitational Potential Energy
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• Gravitational potential energy is the energy possessed or

acquired by an object due to a change in its position when it is
present in a gravitational field. In simple terms, it can be said
that gravitational potential energy is an energy that is related
to gravitational force or to gravity.
• When a body of mass (m) is moved from infinity to a point
inside the gravitational influence of a source mass (M)
without accelerating it, the amount of work done in displacing
it into the source field is stored in the form of potential
 Gravitational Potential Energy
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• Gravitational potential energy depends on:

 Acceleration due to gravity (g)
 The mass of the object measured in kilogram (m) and
 The height of the objects in meters (h)

• The gravitational potential (PEG) is given as:

• Gravitational potential is the amount of work done in moving a unit test mass from infinity into
the gravitational influence of source mass is known as gravitational potential.
 Gravitational Potential Energy
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• 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”; 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 potential energy of mass m is:
 Gravitational Potential Energy
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Note:
• The gravitational potential at a point is always negative, and V is maximum at infinity.
• The SI unit of gravitational potential is J/Kg.
Examples:
3. Calculate the gravitational potential energy of a body of mass 10 kg and is 25 m above the
ground.
4. If the mass of the earth is and the mass of the sun is , and the earth is 160 million km away
from the sun, calculate the gravitation potential energy of the earth.
5. A basketball weighing 2.2 kg falls off a building to the ground 50 m below. Calculate the
gravitational potential energy of the ball when it arrives below.
 Gravitational Potential Energy
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4.

5.

The change in gravitational potential energy is equal to the work done by

gravity. Therefore, Gravitational potential energy is equal to 240J
 Escape Velocity
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• Escape Velocity is referred to as the minimum velocity needed by anybody or object to be

projected to overcome the gravitational pull of the planet earth. In other words, the
minimum velocity that one requires to escape the gravitational field is escape velocity.
• It refers to the initial velocity a particle must have at the surface of a planet in order to leave
the planet forever, and never be pulled back by the planet’s gravity.
• If a particle leaves the surface of a planet with an initial velocity equal to the escape
velocity, then the body will move more and more slowly as the particle moves farther from
the planet, finally reaching a velocity of zero at r=∞. (We assume only the particle and the
planet are present, and ignore all other bodies.)
 Escape Velocity
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• Escape velocity formula is given as:

Where,
V is the escape velocity
G is the gravitational constant is
M is the mass of the planet
R is the radius from the center of gravity
• It is expressed in m/s and the escape velocity of earth is 11,200 m/s.
 Escape Velocity
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• An alternative expression for the escape velocity particularly useful at the surface on the
body is

Where g is the acceleration due to the gravity of earth.

Hence, Escape velocity is also given by :
Examples
6. Determine the escape velocity of the Jupiter if its radius is 7149 Km and mass is
7. Determine the escape velocity of the moon if Mass is and the radius is
 Escape Velocity
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8. Suppose the radius of Earth is and the mass of the planet earth is . Find out the escape
velocity from planet earth.
9. In order to leave the moon, the Apollo astronauts had to take off in the lunar mobile and
reach the escape velocity of the moon. The radius of the moon is , and the mass of the moon is .
Calculate the velocity which the Apollo astronauts have to reach in order to leave the moon?
 Escape Velocity
6.
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7.
 Escape Velocity
8.
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9.
 Satellite Motion and Orbits
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• The satellites revolve around the earth, making a circular or

elliptical path called the orbit.
• Any heavenly or human-made body that revolves around a
central body, such as the Earth, Sun, or other bodies in the
solar system, is known to be a satellite. However, these
satellites revolve around and make either circular or elliptical
orbits when it comes to Earth. The earth, in this case, is said
to be the central body.
• Satellites are objects or bodies that revolve around the
heavier body in space.
 Satellite Motion and Orbits
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There are two types of satellites:
• Natural Satellites: Satellites naturally present in space, such as
comets and the Moon.
• Artificial Satellites: Satellites made by humans for various
purposes such as weather forecasting, communication, etc.
• Every planet has at least one of its natural satellites. The earth
has only one, the Moon, while other planets such as Jupiter are
known to have 53 natural satellites (moons).
• The Soviet Union, now Russia, launched the first artificial
satellite into space on Oct 4, 1957, named Sputnik 1. The launch
of Sputnik 1 triggered what was called the Space Race.
 Motion of Satellite around the earth
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• The satellite orbiting the earth has a velocity and acceleration
component similar to an object moving on a circular path. While
revolving around the earth, satellites make a circular path.
• The tangent to this circular path gives the direction of the
satellite’s velocity, whereas acceleration is towards the centre of
the circle.
• Various forces act between the Earth and the satellite, making
them orbit on a circular path. The net force that acts in the
inward direction of the circle makes the satellite accelerate
around the Earth.
 Motion of Satellite around the earth
• The gravitational force that acts between the Earth and the satellite
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and centripetal force are two main forces causing the motion of
satellites around Earth.
• If there is no centripetal force, satellites will keep moving at the
same speed and direction. In such a case, the satellite will move on
a straight path, and there will be no circular motion.
• However, some satellites move along an elliptical orbit. In that
case, unlike the circular motion, the central body is positioned at
foci of the ellipse.
• The velocity component of the satellite acts along the tangent of the
ellipse. At the same time, the acceleration acts towards the focus.
 Motion of Satellite around the earth
• Based on Newton’s Second Law of Motion, the direction of the net force
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will be towards the focus.

• This is because, along with centripetal force and gravitational force, a
force component acts either in the same or opposite direction.
• This component of force changes the speed of the satellite. Hence,
satellites with elliptical motion do not have a constant speed.
Orbital Velocity of Satellite
• The velocity with which satellites move around the earth is known as the
orbital velocity of satellites.
• Orbital velocity is also known as critical velocity. The minimum velocity
required to make a satellite move around the earth with stability.