This episode introduces Newtons law of universal gravitation for point masses and for spherical masses and gets students practising calculations of the force between objects. The strength of the gravitational attractive force between two masses is proportional to the square of the distance between them. The meaning of inverse square law is discussed.
Universal Gravitation The Universal Gravitation Toolkit provides teachers with standards-based resources for designing lesson plans and units that pertain to introductory concepts associated with Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation.
Specifically students start by changing the mass of and distance between the two interacting objects. Lesson two focuses on the topic of weight and the effect it has on bodies. This episode introduces Newtons law of universal gravitation for point masses and for spherical masses and gets students practising calculations of the force between objects. This lesson plan uses a free online game called Impulse which helps students build intuitive understanding of Newtons law of universal gravitation and first and second laws of motion.