# Questions tagged [newtonian-gravity]

Questions regarding the theory of gravity as proposed by Newton, in which the force of gravity depends only on the mass of bodies, a constant, and the distance between them, and depends on one equation.

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### Why are pseudo-Newtonian potentials used to model accretion disks around Schwarzschild black holes?

The general relativistic effective potential in Schwarzschild geometry (in units $G=M=c=1$) is expressed as $$V_{eff}=\sqrt{\left(1-\frac{2}{r}\right)\left(1+\frac{l^2}{r^2}\right)}$$ where $r$ is the ...
180 views

### Why does Newtonian physics give the right radius for a black hole?

When computing the distance at which the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light, the result is equal to the Schwarzschild radius. Is this just a coincidence, or is there a physical reason why ...
74 views

### Gravitational Slingshot

If a spacecraft slingshots around a planet P (with escape velocity V) at an angle $\theta$, I understand that the resulting velocity is { v }_{ 2 }=({ v }_{ 1 }+2u)\sqrt { 1-\frac { 4u{ v }_{ 1 }(1-...
71 views

### Could a gas giant orbit a star with a 30 year period at a distance of just 1 AU?

Assuming a star with similar properties to our sun, could a gas giant orbit it with an orbital period similar to that of Saturn, but, at a much closer orbital distance, more similar to 1 AU?
21 views

### Freefall timescale for a Jeans-unstable hydrogen cloud of mass M

I'm working on a project (personal, not academic) that involves calculating the collapse timescales for protostars which will end up becoming stars of varying given masses. I'm treating the pre-main ...
1k views

### Gravitational acceleration inside a planet

The gravitational acceleration, g, inside the Earth generally decreases with decreasing distance to the center: However, apparently for Jupiter, the gravitational acceleration only increases with ...
77 views

### Can gravity be amplified by other celestial bodies in its vicinity?

I`m wondering if the gravitational pull from earth that should be constant around the planet, will get amplified by a celestial body like the moon orbiting the earth?
292 views

### Universe Sandbox 2 accurate representation of gravity

I've been playing Universe Sandbox for a while now and I have never been able to make a near Earth asteroid collide with it. By "make" I mean, simulating billions of years of known, near Earth objects ...
473 views

### Gravity on a right rectangular prism? [closed]

Let's assume there is a right rectangular prism floating about in space, what would the gravity be like across its 6 flat surfaces? What gravity would you experience if you set foot on the rectangular ...
162 views

### Gravitational attraction of Sun on distant object

A hypothetical situation which will help me with a real-life problem. Several stationary objects are placed at great distances from our Sun -- say 0.1 light year, 0.5 ly, 1.0 ly. Assuming no other ...
494 views

### Equations of motion for Earth and Moon

One of the simplest versions of Newton's equations of motion for the Sun, Earth and Moon can be obtained by making the approximation that the three bodies are perfect spheres. In this approximation, ...
176 views

### Is it true that open clusters have $E > 0$ and globular clusters have $E < 0$?

I just need to confirm or refute something I'm believing since a very long time, maybe without real evidence. Can we distinguish stellar clusters by their total mechanical energy ? Is it true that ...
71 views

### Natural units of star clusters angular momentum and energy

I'm calculating the total angular momentum of a bunch of theoretical stars of a few solar masses, separated by a few light years, moving at velocities of about a few dozens of km / sec. Mechanical ...
313 views

### Orbits using Newtons laws

I am making a small orbit simulator. I figured out Kepler's laws and know how to work with them to "update" an orbit based on time. So now I want to know how I can describe orbits with newton laws. ...
61 views

### Could the Sun's bending of light be measured on photographic plates before Einstein's prediction?

It was predicted from Newtonian physics already in the 18th century that gravity should bend light, but not by as much as general relativity predicts. This was first confirmed during a solar eclipse ...
261 views

### Parabolic or hyperbolic trajectories

According to Newton's laws, the trajectories for the two-body problem are conics: either ellipses, or parabolas or hyperbolas. Of course periodic motions require Ellipses and in the Solar system these ...
94 views

Question: Approximately once in 5 years people on Earth can observe bright comets whose nuclei have radius about 1km. The orbits of such comets are close to parabolic. Assuming that these nuclei are ...
397 views

### Precision of geocentric gravitational constant

I am looking for an answer as to why the geocentric gravitational constant, μ, defined as the product of the gravitational constant, G, and the mass of a body (earth in this case), M, can be ...
883 views

### Why can't gravity repel things?

Gravity is the result of the curvature of space, so could the curvature actually send objects away from the source?
151 views

### Understanding gravity

Forgive me if my question has an obvious answer, but I need to know the answer. I always thought that more massive/energetic objects had a stronger force of gravity than less massive ones; that is, ...
134 views

### What's the relation between Einstein's Gravitational Theory and Dark Matter?

I was reading an elementary book on dark matter (in fact, a historical perspective) and there were mentioned how the scientific community react to the idea of dark matter proposed as a solution to ...
139 views

### Can the centripetal force be inverted? [closed]

Using the centripetal force to create artificial gravity has been proposed for space exploration. From our perspective, the force is an outward force, pushing objects away. Could it be inverted to ...
12k views

### Gravitation - Pulling or Pushing force?

According to Newton, gravity is the pulling - or in fact the attracting - force of any heavenly body towards any object to its center. But, to the contrary, Einstein once said that the four dimensions ...
2k views

### Can I measure the moon's gravity?

Since I learned about Newton's gravity law, I wonder if I can measure the moon's gravity using (almost) no special equipment. The best I could come up with is a pendulum, which is in a resting ...
815 views

### Gravitational lensing in Newtonian physics

Famously, when Eddington attempted to measure gravitational lensing during the Eclipse, it was the measured magnitude of the lensing that gave gravity [pun, obviously, intended] to General Relativity -...
133 views

### Attraction to barycenter

If an object was a distance from a planet away that equaled the distance from the object to a moon of the said planet, would it be drawn into the direction of the barycenter as it is the common center ...
82 views

### Simulation packages or theory to work with gravitational collapse of massive molecular clouds?

So, I am getting interested in gravitational collapse of large molecular clouds that fragment and collapse into multiple stars. Are there well-known popular academic simulation packages that simulate ...
472 views

### Does one need to take into account finite gravity speed in N-body simulations?

Most small-scale N-body simulations (e.g., planetary systems, solar system, stellar clusters, ...) use classical Newtonian gravity. Most large-scale N-body simulations (e.g., galaxy clusters, ...) ...
71 views

### How can I predict space directions?

Did the Neptune and Pluto trajectories ever cross or was it a mere reclassification? Do studies say that I can predict an intersection between 2 trajectories or movements based on data now? Do I have ...
129 views

### Why does a particle feel no force at radii greater than itself?

I am working through Liddle's "An Introduction to Modern Cosmology", and in a newtonian derivation of the Friedman equation he states: in a spherically symmetric distribution of matter, a particle ...
521 views

### What is gravity really?

What is gravity? I want to know more than it being simply the "mysterious force" that attracts things to earth. Is it a particle, a wave, or something else entirely?