Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In particular, a non-uniform gravitational field can produce a torque on an object, even about an axis through the center of mass. The center of gravity seeks to explain this effect. Formally, a center of gravity is an application point of the resultant gravitational force on the body. Such a point may not exist, and if it exists, it is not unique.
For example, on the International Space Station the Earth's gravity is nearly 90% as strong as at the surface. Objects orbiting in space would not remain in orbit if not for the gravitational force, and gravitational fields extend even into the depths of intergalactic space. [5] [6] [7] The dark side of the Moon illuminated by the Sun.
It is the differential force of gravity, the net between gravitational forces, the derivative of gravitational potential, the gradient of gravitational fields. Therefore tidal forces are a residual force , a secondary effect of gravity, highlighting its spatial elements, making the closer near-side more attracted than the more distant far-side.
The equivalence principle is the hypothesis that the observed equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass is a consequence of nature. The weak form, known for centuries, relates to masses of any composition in free fall taking the same trajectories and landing at identical times.
In classical mechanics, a gravitational field is a physical quantity. [5] A gravitational field can be defined using Newton's law of universal gravitation. Determined in this way, the gravitational field g around a single particle of mass M is a vector field consisting at every point of a vector pointing directly towards the particle. The ...
This precession is due to the non-spherical nature of a rotating body, which creates a non-uniform gravitational field. The following discussion relates to low Earth orbit of artificial satellites, which have no measurable effect on the motion of Earth. The nodal precession of more massive, natural satellites like the Moon is more complex.
A complete field theory knows only fields and not the concepts of particle and motion. For these must not exist independently from the field but are to be treated as part of it. On the basis of the description of a particle without singularity, one has the possibility of a logically more satisfactory treatment of the combined problem: The ...
Long term Earth-based observations of the motions of Phobos and Deimos provide physical parameters including semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclination angle to the Laplacian plane etc., [15] which allow calculation of the ratio of solar mass to the mass of Mars, moment of inertia and coefficient of the gravitational potential of Mars, and give ...