Forces and Motion
Gravity
Notebook
Now that you have experienced doing math with exponents by hand you can appreciate an online scientific calculator.
Example: To calculate:
(3.68 x 10-4)½ / (5.71 x 10-2)
enter this in the calculator window:
(3.68 x 10^-4)^0.5 / (5.71 x 10^-2)
and the calculator will display the answer of 0.336
(Note that the ^ symbol means to raise 10 to the number that follows.)
Just remember that on an exam you will have to be able to do it without the calculator so use it as a check to your handwork!
Notes
• All objects that have mass have gravity.
• The force of gravity decreases as you move away from a massive body.
• Gravity accelerates objects.
• We can substitute “g”, the gravitational acceleration, for “a”, general acceleration, in our equations.
• g = acceleration of gravity = 9.8 m/s2
• G = universal gravitation constant = G=6.67×10-11 Nm2/kg2
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