Universal Law of Gravitation

Sir Isaac Newton in 1687 proposed a law about the force of attraction between the

objects in the universe which is known as Newton’s law of gravitation.

According to Universal law of Gravitation

Every mass in this universe attracts every other mass with a force which is directly proportional to

the product of two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them

• Let masses (M) and (m) of two objects are distance (d) apart, then force of attraction (F) between

them

F ∝ M×m

F ∝ 1/d2

F ∝ Mm/d2

F = (GMm)/d2

where,

G is a constant and is known as Gravitational constant.

Value of G = 6.67×10-11 Nm2/kg2

G is called universal gravitational constant.

→ If unit of F is in Newton, m is in kg, d is in mere, then unit of G can be calculated as :

G = (F×d2)/Mm, therefor unit will be Nm2/kg2

Importance of universal law of gravitation

(i) The force that binds us to the earth.

(ii) The motion of moon around the earth.

(iii) The motion of earth around the sun.

(iv) The tides due to moon and the sun.