PHYSICAL SCIENCE ( Second Quarter ) During this motion a change in shape and

Lecture #1 08/22/17 size takes place.

WHAT IS MOTION? Periodic motion: When the same motion
repeats itself after equal intervals of time.
An object is said to be in motion if it changes its
position with respect to its surroundings in given Objects/Actions having more than one type of
time. motion:
Motion is always observed and measured with a Drawing water from well: In this case the
point of reference pulley on which rope is put has circular motion
and bucket has linear motion
All livings things show motion whereas non-living
things show motion only when some force is acting Frisbee: In this the frisbee has rotational
on it. motion as well as linear motion in the direction
it moves
TYPES OF MOTION:
Sewing machine: Needle of the sewing
 Translatory Motion machine oscillates and the wheel rotates in
 Circular Motion circular motion.

Translatory Motion: The motion in which all Many Types of Motion:

points of a moving body move uniformly along a
Motion of Earth: Earth revolves around the
straight line.
sun, thus showing circular motion. It rotates
Types of Translatory Motion around the axis showing rotatory motion. Both
the above motions are repeated after a fixed
Rectilinear motion: If a body moves in a interval of time, so it shows periodic motion too.
straight line
Bicycle: When a person rides a bicycle, the
Curvilinear motion: If a body moves along cycle and the rider shows translatory motion
a curved path then it is said to have whereas the wheels show translatory motion.
curvilinear motion.
Screw: When a screw is screwed into a box it
Circular motion: An object is said to be in circular shows both rectilinear and rotatory motion
motion when it moves around a fixed point called
axis.
Types of Circular Motion:
Revolution: When a body as a whole
move in a circular path its motion is called
revolution and the body is said to revolve.
Rotatory motion: When a body undergoes
translatory motion in such a way that its
parts cover different distances in a given
time it is said to have rotatory motion.
Random Motion: Irregular motion of a
body in which the direction is not fixed.
Oscillatory motion: When a body moves
to and fro about a fixed point.
Vibratory motion: Sometimes the whole
object does not show to and fro motion but
a part of it shows motion, such a motion is
called vibratory motion. This motion is
actually a very fast to and fro motion. All
musical instruments show vibratory motion.
Lecture #2 08/23/17 The earth has:
Ancient Views About Science (a) spherical shape
Astronomy - is a natural science that deals with (b) state of rest
the study of and phenomena that originate outside
(c) a position at the centre of the
the Earth's atmosphere. It is concerned with the
universe.
evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and
motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation Ptolemy’s Geocentric Model
and development of the universe.
Ancient genesis myths and cosmological
beliefs
The Hindu, Greek and Babylonian views
of the universe share many of these
common ideas.
Today, Jewish, Christian and Muslim
traditions believe in a universe that was
created by God.

Ancient Views: Matter and Motion

Greeks and Aristotle (384-322 BC):
 “The world and the human race had always
existed and would continue to exist
indefinitely.”
 Emphasis on Natural Philosophy
 Geocentric theory

Geocentric Theory
The universe has 2 domains:

◦ Celestial (The world of eternal and

Ptolemaic model
perfect beings)
Consist of transparent spheres
◦ Terrestrial (The world of temporal
and corruptible things) ◦ Outer most sphere ~ celestial
spheres of stars
Note: Behaviour of objects depends on two things:
(a)Nature of its composition, (b)domain ◦ Immovable earth ~ center of the
universe
Motions
◦ Each sphere ~ celestial body
Celestial bodies - uniform circular
moving in uniform circular motion
motion.
Explained generally observed motions of
Terrestrial bodies- toward its natural
the heavenly bodies and objects of the
resting place
sublunary world
Elements
Some difficulties were met regarding
earth, wind, air, fire (on earth) changes in the shape, brightness and

ether (celestial world)

 speed of bodies especially the retrogade The earth was moving about the sun
motion together with the planets.

◦ Retrograde motion is backward As regard to the retrograde motion-

movement of planets (east to west) consequences of the relative motion of the
earth with respect to the other planets.
Ptolemy perfected geometrical devices like
eccentric, epicycle-deferent system and Its basic concern was still the same as that
equant to explain retrograde motion of Plato: a more simple geocentric system
of the universe.
There was much opposition against the
Epicycle-deferent system Copernican model from the standpoint of
Planet P moves uniform circular motion on religious or faith ~ to believe in the
a small circle called the epicycle. The heliocentric model was equivalent to
center of the epicycle (A) is a point on a heresy.
large circle called deferent. It took more than 100 years before the
From B to C- eastward heliocentric theory gained acceptance.

From C to B- westward Note to self

Then repeats itself Copernicus’ theory did not improve on the

accuracy of predictions over the geocentric
A word on Ancient Greek Theory model
Ptolemaic model was based on There were NO new fundamental facts or
fundamental philosophical concepts- observations that the Copernican model
Plato’s principle of uniform circular motion could explain which the geocentric model
was assumed as a philosophical truth could not.
Greeks-physical theory of the universe can
be best understood in the context of prior
assumption or preconceptions.
Greek philosophy influenced the beginning
of science.
Other scientific features of ancient Greek
theory
1. Quantitative or measurable observations
2. Uniformity and order in motion
3. Mathematical and geometrical principles
Copernican Revolution

Heliocentric model
Nikolai Copernicus- earth was displaced
from the center of the universe.
Lecture #2 Aristotle – he discovered moon’s phase and
HISTORY OF UNIVERSE eclipses.

Geocentric Universe Plato – suggest that all motion in the sky follows a
uniform circular motion.
The idea that the earth is at the center of the
Philolaus – introduced the idea that the earth is in
universe and all things fall around her is the
motion around an invisible fire.
simplest and longest lasting universal view
that we have had. Aristarchus – proposed that the earth is round
because of other subjects observed in the sky and
attempted to calculate the distance of the earth
What the centric Geocentric Universe is made from the moon and the sun.
of: Eratosthenes – he determined the size of the
earth through mathematical calculations.
 Sun
 Moon Hipparchus – classified stars according to
 Stars magnitude and discovered the motion of the earth
 5 planets called precession.
o Mercury The idea of Copernicus was not really new! A sun-
o Venus centered Solar System had been proposed as
o Mars early as about 200 B.C. by Aristarchus of Samos
o Jupiter (Samos is an island off the coast of what is now
o Saturn Turkey). However, it did not survive long under the
 How did they discover the existence of weight of Aristotle’s influence and common sense.
these planets?
o If the Earth actually spun on an axis,
Geocentric Universe why didn’t objects fly off the spinning
earth?
Much of what we know about Greek astronomy o If the Earth was in motion around the
comes to us through Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100- sun, why didn’t it leave behind the birds
170). But he is the most famous for advancing the flying in the air?
first general theory of cosmology – “the study of the o If the Earth were actually on an orbit
structure and motions of the universe” – although around the sun, why wasn’t the parallax
his work drew heavily of that perhaps the greatest effect observed?
Greek astronomer, Hipparchus. In the 3rd century B.C., Aristarchus of Samos
PTOMLEMY’S UNIVERSE hypothesized that the observed motions of the
stars and planets could be explained if Earth
Ptolemy placed the Earth at the center of the revolved around the Sun. No one knows why he
universe, with the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, made this conceptual leap, although he had made
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn circling our planet. a crude calculation showing the Sun to be much
larger than Earth, and perhaps he felt it made more
Ptolemy designed a geocentric, or Earth-centered,
model that held sway for 1,400 years. sense for the bigger object to lie at the center.

Assumptions about the Universe The man who first measured the world, the Greek
astronomer Eratosthenes. He noticed that on the
1. The earth is the center of the universe. first day of summer in Syene (now Aswan), Egypt,
2. The earth does not move. the Sun appeared directly overhead at Alexandria,
3. The earth is flat. however, the Sun appeared slightly south (about 7
4. Planets move in circular orbit. degrees) of the zenith. Knowing the distance
5. Stars are immutable. between Syene and Alexandria and assuming that
the Sun’s rays were parallel when they struck the
Astronomers during the Geocentric Era curved Earth, he calculated the size of our planet
using simple geometry. His result, about 25,000
Pythagoras – all celestial objects are spherical in miles for the circumference, proved remarkably
shape and the first person to suggest that the earth accurate.
revolves around the sun.
The Heliocentric System We noted earlier that 3 incorrect ideas held
back the development of modern astronomy
In a book called On the Revolutions of the
from the time of Aristotle until the 16th and 17th
Heavenly Bodies (that was published as
centuries:
Copernicus lay on his deathbed), Copernicus
proposed that the Sun, not the Earth was the  (1) the assumption that the Earth was the
center of the Solar System. Such a model is called center of the Universe,
a heliocentric system. The ordering of the planets
 (2) the assumption of uniform circular
known to Copernicus in this new system, which we
motion in the heavens, and
recognized as the modern ordering of those
planets making him the Father of Modern Day  (3) the assumption that objects in the
Astronomy. heavens were made from a perfect,
The Copernican Model: unchanging substance not found on the
Earth.
A Sun-Centered Solar System
As we shall see later, the orbits of the planets are
In this new ordering, the Earth is just another
not circles, they are actually ellipses.
planet (the third outward from the Sun), and the
Moon is in orbit around the Sun. The stars are As a consequence, the Copernican model, with it
distance objects that do not revolve around the assumption of uniform circular motion, still could
Sun. Instead, the Earth is assumed to rotate once not explain all the details of planetary motion on
in 24 hours, causing the stars to appear to revolve the celestial sphere without epicycles.
around the Earth in the opposite direction.
The difference was that the Copernican system
Retrograde Motion and Varying Brightness of required many fewer epicycles than the Ptolemaic
the Planets system because it moved the Sun to the center.
The Copernican Revolution
The Copernican system by banishing the idea that
the Earth was the center of the Solar System, The Observations of Tycho Brahe
immediately led to a simple explanation of both the
varying brightness of the planets and retrograde  A Danish nobleman, Tycho Brahe (1546-
motion. 1601), made important contributions by
devising the most precise instruments
The planets in such a system naturally vary in available before the invention of the
brightness because there is not always the same telescope for observing the heavens.
distance from the Earth.
 The instruments of Brahe allowed him to
The retrograde motion could be explained in terms determine more precisely than had been
of geometry and a faster motion for planets with possible the detailed motions of the
smaller obits, as illustrated in the following planets.
animation.
Summary of Brahe's Contributions
RETROGRADE MOTION IN THE COPERNICAN
SYSTEM  He made the most precise observations
that had yet been made by devising the
Copernicus and the Need for epicycles best instruments available before the
invention of the telescope.
There is a common misconception that the
Copernican model did away with the need for  His observations of planetary motion,
epicycles. particularly that of Mars, provided the
crucial data for later astronomers like
This is not true, because Copernicus was able to
Kepler to construct our present model of
rid himself of the long-held notion that the Earth
the solar system.
was the center of the Solar System, but he did not
question the assumption of uniform circular  He made observations of a supernova in
motion. 1572, we now know that a supernova is an
exploding star. This was a "star" that
Thus, in the Copernican model that Sun was at the
appeared suddenly where none had been
center, but the planets still executed uniform
seen before, and was visible for about 18
circular about it.
months before fading from view. This was
 early evidence against the immutable  Unlike Brahe, Kepler believed firmly in the
nature of the heavens. Copernican system. In retrospect, the
reason that the orbit of Mars was
 He made the best measurements that had
particularly difficult was that Copernicus
yet been made in the search for stellar
had correctly placed the Sun at the center
parallax. Upon finding no parallax for the
of the Solar System, but had erred in
stars, he (correctly) concluded that either
assuming the orbits of the planets to be
circles.

 The earth was motionless at the  Thus, in the Copernican theory epicycles
center of the Universe, were still required to explain the details of
planetary motion.
 The stars were so far away that
their parallax was too small to  It fell to
measure. Kepler to provide the
final piece of the
 Not for the only time in human thought, a puzzle: after a long
great thinker formulated a pivotal question struggle, in which he
correctly, but then made the wrong choice tried mightily to
of possible answers: Brahe did not avoid his eventual
believe that the stars could possibly be conclusion, Kepler
so far away and so concluded that the was forced finally to the realization that the
Earth was the center of the Universe and orbits of the planets were not the circles
that Copernicus was wrong. demanded by Aristotle and assumed
Brahe’s Cosmology implicitly by Copernicus, but were instead
the "flattened circles" that geometers call
 Brahe ellipses
proposed a model of
the Solar System that Some Properties of Ellipses
was intermediate
between the
Ptolemaic and
Copernican models. It
proved to be
incorrect, but was the most widely
accepted model of the Solar System for a
time. The Laws of Planetary Motion
 Thus, Brahe's ideas about his data were  Utilizing the voluminous and precise data of
not always correct, but the quality of the Brahe, Kepler was eventually able to build
observations themselves was central to the on the realization that the orbits of the
development of modern astronomy. planets were ellipses to formulate his Three
Johannes Kepler: The Laws of Planetary Laws of Planetary Motion.
Motion  The amount of "flattening" of the ellipse is
 The next great development in the history termed the eccentricity. Thus, in the
of astronomy was the theoretical intuition of following figure the ellipses become more
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German eccentric from left to right.
who went to Prague to become Brahe's
assistant.
Kepler and the Elliptical Orbits
Kepler's First Law:  In this equation P
represents the period of
 I. The orbits of the
revolution for a planet
planets are ellipses, with
and R represents the
the Sun at one focus of
length of its semimajor
the ellipse.
axis. The subscripts "1"
 Known as “The Law and "2" distinguish
of Ellipses” quantities for planet 1 and 2 respectively.
The periods for the two planets are
assumed to be in the same time units and
Kepler's Second Law: the lengths of the semimajor axes for the
two planets are assumed to be in the same
distance units.
 The line
joining the Galileo: The Telescope & the Laws of
planet to the Dynamics
Sun sweeps out
equal areas in  Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was a pivotal
equal times as figure in the development of modern
the planet astronomy, both because of his
travels around the ellipse. contributions directly to astronomy, and
because of his work in physics and its
 Known as “The Law of Equal Areas” relation to astronomy.
Calculations Using Kepler's Third Law  He provided the crucial observations that
proved the Copernican hypothesis, and
 A convenient unit of measurement for
also laid the foundations for a correct
periods is in Earth years, and a convenient
understanding of how objects moved on
unit of measurement for distances is the
the surface of the earth (dynamics) and of
average separation of the Earth from the
gravity.
Sun, which is termed an astronomical unit
and is abbreviated as AU. If these units are The Telescope
used in Kepler's 3rd Law, the denominators
in the preceding equation are numerically  Galileo did not invent the telescope (Dutch
equal to unity and it may be written in the spectacle makers receive that credit –
simple form Hans Leppershey), but he was the first to
use the telescope to study the heavens
systematically. His little telescope was
poorer than even a cheap modern amateur
 This equation may then be solved for the
telescope, but what he observed in the
period P of the planet, given the length of
heavens rocked the very foundations of
the semimajor axis,
Aristotle's universe and the theological-
philosophical worldview that it supported.
 It is said that what Galileo saw was so
 or for the length of the semimajor axis, disturbing for some officials of the Church
given the period of the planet, that they refused to even look through his
telescope; they reasoned that the Devil
was capable of making anything appear in
the telescope, so it was best not to look
through it.
Kepler's Third Law:
 III. The ratio of the squares of the
revolutionary periods for two planets is
equal to the ratio of the cubes of their
semimajor axes.
 Sunspots set of phases over time as viewed from the
Earth because it is illuminated from the
 Galileo observed the
center of its orbit.
Sun through his telescope
and saw that the Sun had
dark patches on it that we
now call sunspots (he
eventually went blind,
perhaps from damage
suffered by looking at the Sun with his
telescope). Furthermore, he observed
motion of the sunspots indicating that the
Sun was rotating on an axis.
 These "blemishes" on the Sun were
contrary to the doctrine of an unchanging
perfect substance in the heavens, and the
rotation of the Sun made it less strange that
the Earth might rotate on an axis too, as
required in the Copernican model. Both
represented new facts that were unknown
to Aristotle and Ptolemy.
The Moons of Jupiter
 Galileo observed 4
points of light that changed
their positions with time
around the planet Jupiter.
He concluded that these
were objects in orbit
around Jupiter. Indeed, Myriad Observations Showing Phenomena
they were the 4 brightest moons of Jupiter, Unknown to Aristotle
which are now commonly called the
 Galileo made many other observations that
Galilean moons.
undermined the authority on which the
 One of the arguments against the Ptolemaic universe was built. Some of
Copernican system (and the original these included
heliocentric idea of Aristarchus) had been
 Showing that the planets were
that if the moon were in orbit around the
disks, not points of light, as seen
Earth and the Earth in orbit around the Sun,
through the telescope.
the Earth would leave the Moon behind as
it moved around its orbit.  Showing that the great “cloud”
called the Milky Way (which we now
The Phases of Venus
know to be the disk of our spiral
 The crucial galaxy) was composed of
point is the enormous numbers of stars that
empirical fact that had not been seen before.
Venus is never
 Observing that the planet Saturn
very far from the
had "ears". We now know that
Sun in our sky.
Galileo was observing the rings of
Thus, as the following diagrams indicate, in
Saturn, but his telescope was not
the Ptolemaic system Venus should always
good enough to show them as more
be in crescent phase as viewed from the
than extensions on either side of
Earth because as it moves around its
the planet.
epicycle it can never be far from the
direction of the sun, but in the Copernican  Showing that the Moon was not
system Venus should exhibit a complete smooth, as had been assumed, but
 was covered by mountains and Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity
craters.
Sir Isaac Newton and the Unification of
Physics & Astronomy
 Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was by
many standards the most important figure
in the development of modern science.
Many would credit him and Einstein with  Motion is relative not absolute.
being the most original thinkers in science
development.
We shall concentrate on three developments
of most direct relevance to our discussion:
 (1) Newton's Three Laws of Motion,
 (2) the Theory of Universal Gravitation,
and
 (3) the demonstration that Kepler's
Laws follow from the Law of
Gravitation.
Newton's Three Laws of Motion  Other striking consequences are
associated with the dependence of space
 Law of Inertia
and time on velocity: at speeds near that of
Every object in a state of uniform motion
light, space itself becomes contracted in
tends to remain in that state of motion
the direction of motion and the passage of
unless an external force is applied to it.
time slows. Although these seem bizarre
 Law of Acceleration ideas (because our everyday experience
The relationship between an object's mass typically does not include speeds near that
m, its acceleration a, and the applied force of light), many experiments indicate that
F is F = ma. the Special Theory of Relativity is correct
and our "common sense" (and Newton's
Newton's second law states that the laws) are incorrect near the speed of light.
acceleration of an object is directly related
to the net force and inversely related to its  The first two objections were not valid
mass. because they represent an inadequate
understanding of the physics of motion that
 Law of Interaction would only be corrected in the 17th century.
For every action there is an equal and The third objection is valid, but failed to
opposite reaction. account for what we now know to be the
enormous distances to the stars. As
Sir Isaac Newton: The Universal Law of illustrated in the following figure, the
Gravitation amount of parallax decreases with
distance.
 There is a popular story that Newton was
sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell on  The parallax effect is there, but it is very
his head, and he suddenly thought of the small because the stars are so far away
Universal Law of Gravitation. As in all such that their parallax can only be observed
legends, this is almost certainly not true in with very precise instruments. Indeed, the
its details, but the story contains elements parallax of stars was not measured
conclusively until the year 1838. Thus, the
of what actually happened.
heliocentric idea of Aristarchus was quickly
forgotten and Western thought stagnated
for almost 2000 years as it waited for
Copernicus to revive the heliocentric
theory.
 Precession of the Equinoxes
 Since the clockwise rotation of Earth’s axis
is opposite to the counter-
clockwise rotation of the orbital ellipse the
resulting periodicity is known as the
“Precession of the Equinoxes” which is 23
thousand years.
 This is why the seasons shift slowly over
the years and if the calendar is not adjusted
LECTURE #3 equinoxes shift 6 months every 11500
Annular, Diurnal Precession of Equinoxes years. The calendars have been
adjusted in the past. Calendars will be
Diurnal vs. Annular Motion adjusted again in the future.
Diurnal Motion  There is actually a great variation in the
periodicity of the cycle known as the
o “Daily Motion”
precession of equinoxes. The periodicity
o Sun, Moon, planets, and stars rise changes between 19 thousand years and
in the east and set in the west 23 thousand years. The average period
over a very long time span is 21 thousand
o Due to the Earth’s rotation years. My best estimate for the duration of
o Ancient astronomers took all the latest cycle is 23 thousand years.
celestial motion to be diurnal
o The Celestial Sphere!
Annual Motion
o “Yearly Motion”
o Due to the Earth’s revolution
o Is the sky different from day to day?
o Month to month?
o Year to year?
Precession of the Ellipse
 While Earth’s spin axis is
rotating clockwise around the solar axis
with 26 thousand year periodicity the
ellipticity of Earth’s orbit changes with 100
thousand year periodicity. The ellipticity
changes in such a way that it appears as
if the ellipse is rotating counter-clockwise.
This motion is known as the Precession of
the Ellipse.