Gravitation

The Story of Science

Philosophy of Science

Teaching of Science

Curriculum and Syllabus

Topics in School Science

Textbooks

Question Bank

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What does this topic contain

• Introduction to Gravitation
• Universal Law of Gravitation
• Acceleration due to Gravity
• of Gravitational Force Significance of Gravitational Force
• Fun Applications
• Unit Outline for Gravitation

Concept Map

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Textbook

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Additional information

Useful websites

1. 
   This is a college lecture by Prof Walter Levin explaining gravitation. Click here to see the video.
   
   
   
   
2. Conceptual Physics
3. Physics Classroom

Reference Books

The following textbooks are good references

1. Conceptual Physics, Paul Hewitt, 10th Edition
2. Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Douglas C. Giancoli, 3rd Edition
3. Resnick & Halliday with Jearl Walker, 8th Edition
4. NCERT Class 9 textbook Motion
5. NCERT Class 9 textbook Laws of Motion
6. NCERT Class 9 textbook Gravitation

An image of a concept map for gravitation

This is an image of a mind map developed by Shri Chaluvanarayanaswamy

Teaching Outlines

1. Contact and Non-Contact Forces
2. Understanding Contact Forces
3. Gravitation acts at a distance

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Concept #1 - Contact and Non-Contact Forces

Learning objectives

1. Forces can act in contact
2. Forces can act over a distance

Notes for teachers

These are short notes that the teacher wants to share about the concept, any locally relevant information, specific instructions on what kind of methodology used and common misconceptions/mistakes.

Forces can act at a distance and are called non-contact forces. To understand gravitation, we need to understand inertial and gravitational properties of mass. Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces. This document further discusses the concept of acceleration due to gravity and gravitational potential energy. Gravity is responsible for planetary motion and introduces the Kepler's laws of planetary motion.

In everyday life, gravitation is most familiar as the cause due to which masses fall to the ground. Gravitation causes dispersed matter to coalesce, and coalesced matter to remain intact, thus accounting for the existence of the Earth, the Sun, and most of the macroscopic objects in the universe. Gravitation is responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in their orbits around the Sun; for keeping the Moon in its orbit around the Earth; for the formation of tides; for natural convection, by which fluid flow occurs under the influence of a density gradient and gravity; for heating the interiors of forming stars and planets to very high temperatures; and for various other phenomena observed on Earth and the Universe. These are some of the questions we will explore here.

Activities

1. Activity 1 - The various forces we see
2. Activity 2 - More about contact forces

Concept #2 - Gravitation acts at a distance

Learning objectives

1. Gravitation is a field force
2. It is very significant in explaining many events that we see

Notes for teachers

These are short notes that the teacher wants to share about the concept, any locally relevant information, specific instructions on what kind of methodology used and common misconceptions/mistakes. Gravitation explains several phenomena

1. the force that allows us to move on Earth
2. the motion of the moon around the Earth
3. the motion of the planets around the Sun
4. the tides due to the moon and the sun

=Activities

1. Activity 3 - See Gravity in Action
2. Activity 4 - Click to add

Fun corner

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