Earlier in this lesson, five dictionary style definitions of temperature were given. They were: · The degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment. · A measure of the warmth or coldness of an object or substance with reference to some standard value. · A measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a…
On the previous page of this lesson, temperature was defined as the reading on a thermometer. The process of calibrating a thermometer was explained and the variety of commonly used temperature scales were described. Finally, the concept of an absolute lowest temperature was discussed. But in the end, the fundamental definition of temperature was not given. Temperature…
Heat and Temperature Introduction to Thermal Physics Heat, energy and temperature pervade our lives. Just think about it. We give attention to hot and cold in deciding what we wear during the day, at night and when we go to bed. We think about the topic when deciding how many covers, if any at all,…
The orbits of satellites about a central massive body can be described as either circular or elliptical. a satellite orbiting about the earth in circular motion is moving with a constant speed and remains at the same height above the surface of the earth. It accomplishes this feat by moving with a tangential velocity that…
Astronauts who are orbiting the Earth often experience sensations of weightlessness. These sensations experienced by orbiting astronauts are the same sensations experienced by anyone who has been temporarily suspended above the seat on an amusement park ride. Not only are the sensations the same (for astronauts and roller coaster riders), but the causes of those…
The motion of objects is governed by Newton’s laws. The same simple laws that govern the motion of objects on earth also extend to the heavens to govern the motion of planets, moons, and other satellites. The mathematics that describes a satellite’s motion is the same mathematics presented for circular motion in earlier topic. In this part…
A satellite is any object that is orbiting the earth, sun or other massive body. Satellites can be categorized as natural satellites or man-made satellites. The moon, the planets and comets are examples of natural satellites. Accompanying the orbit of natural satellites are a host of satellites launched from earth for purposes of communication, scientific research, weather forecasting,…
Planetary and Satellite Motion In the early 1600s, Johannes Kepler proposed three laws of planetary motion. Kepler was able to summarize the carefully collected data of his mentor – Tycho Brahe – with three statements that described the motion of planets in a sun-centered solar system. Kepler’s efforts to explain the underlying reasons for such motions are no…
In the previous topic, an equation was given for determining the force of gravity (Fgrav) with which an object of mass m was attracted to the earth Fgrav = m*g Now in this unit, a second equation has been introduced for calculating the force of gravity with which an object is attracted to the earth. where d represents the distance from…
Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation proposed that the gravitational attraction between any two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. In equation form, this is often expressed as follows: The constant of proportionality in this equation is G – the universal gravitation…