Thanks to visit codestin.com
Credit goes to www.scribd.com

Scribd
Upload
46 views11 pages

Chapter 06

parte del libro di storia della fisica

Uploaded by

lollo bragonzi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
46 views11 pages

Chapter 06

parte del libro di storia della fisica

Uploaded by

lollo bragonzi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11
rot solve the dynamic problem of finding the path or orbit ofa particle Acted on by fore. Only if we know the nature ofthe fore (is eo ‘merical and physical features) can We solve the problem by replacing Fin ‘Newton's equation by an algebraic expression and then solving the equa ‘ion Tor the Body's acceleration to obtain an obit [Newon’s third law is as simple as the other two laws, but it ato- duces ito the ction of forces remarkable symmetry that does nt appear im the fist wo laws. It states, essentially, that forces appear ia equal and ‘pponite pis in nature, which we can best understand by staying the interaction of wo bodies that pull upon each othe gravitationally, Such 8 ‘the sun andthe earth, The thi nw states that the magnitude ofthe pl of the sun onthe ea exactly equals the magitie of the earth's pllon the ‘sun, andthe two pulls ae long the same line but opposite to each oer. Newton stated ths law inthe mest peneal way as follows: I body A. ‘exerts force of any kind on body 2, then exerts an exactly eal and ‘opposite free on (hela of action and reaction: every ation in nature isaccompanied by an equal and opposite reaction, We discus this fw in rater detail in Chapter 6, curren 6 Newton's Law of Gravity and His Contemporaries vey gree sic rath goes rough tree segs Poh, pope sy cific the Be ety sy ith eon dconred ore Last heyy they ay tied The laws of mire that scientists study may be divided into dsine categories, which ae intertelatd but are often developed independenty ‘The basic categery consists of those laws, theoves, ar speculation th dea with space ad time. In Newtonian mechanies and Newronian theory. Space and time se assumed te independent of each other and space seomety is assumed tobe Euclidean o fat, Morover space is accepted 1 absolute (distunces between evens are the same forall abserver) and infinite in extent Time is also assumed to be absolute and wing contin: ‘ously fom an infinite past to an infinite fate, In our discussion ofthe quantum theory andthe theory of relativity, we shall show how these Exclidean and absolute concepts had to be changed ‘The second category consists ofthe laws of motion, which establish te relationship tetween the motion of a body and the force acting onthe body, as illutaied by Newton's thre laws of motion. These lws-— without which ne cannot deduce che nature of the baie structures (or ‘example, atoms, molecules planes, stars) in the univese—are general Semen in which the nature of the fores that proce changes inthe States of motion isnot specified. Since the description of the sate of ‘otion ofa body involves both space and time, the laws of motion depend ‘on the geomeuy we impose on space and out assumption about the rel Yionhip between space and time, “The laws th escibe the forces in nature constitute the thi eatego- 1, among which is Newton's law of gravity. Today, we recognize or sssume the existence of four basic fees: gravity, the electromagnetic once, the weak interaction (a special ind of weak force in the ncleus of fan tom that maintains a proper balance between the numberof neutrons find protons ina nicews), and the song nuclear force. Here, we limit furslves toa discussion of gravity, which may be defined asthe prime fore in the univers, I goverms such large structures as planets, stars he solar system, galaxies, and the universe iself. If gravity disappeared, none ofthese Structures could exis. ‘Ala of fore generally contains two features tat are independent of eachother. The firs is eomrical n that it describes the dependence of the force (its magni and direction) on the geometrical relationship between two intrcting bodies; the second featre is ninsic to the interacting bodies in thi it gives the dependence ofthe magnitude of the {ce on some physical propery of each ofthe interacting bodies. A force ‘betwen two interacting bodies may aso depend on thei states of motion, ‘but Newtonian gravity doesnot. ‘Newton was probably directed to his formulation ofthe law of grav- ity by Kepler's tia law of planetary moton and his own Second law of tmotion. One can imagine Newton contemplating 2 falling apple while thinking of his own second law of motion, which el him that aceeer tion implies free, The aple i accelerated toward the ground; henee the ‘round exer force on the apple, and so the aw of gravity is conceived ‘Whether or not tatlly happened this ay is of ite importance. but, [Newton's bold conjecture tha the earth and, infact all bois generate ‘ravity was the beginning of avast developmest of profound ideas that ‘ulminated in Einstein's great achievements ‘Newon’s conjecture was just the beginning of the formulation of bis law of gravity—he sil had o show its geometrical and itinsic aspects iscused above, From Kepler’ hid law of planetary motion, one can ‘deduce quite easily the dependence ofthe magnitude of the gravitational force between the sun and planet on thei separation. Kepler didnot do this because he dd aot think ofthe sun's action on a plantas being along the line tothe sin, whereas Newion did. But Newton went beyond think ing ofthe force of gravity as being arscited only with he earth, the sun, land the planets. He generalized the gravity concept and assumed it 0 be ‘universal inthe sense that all particles inthe universe pll on each exer {ravttionally. To show this, be wrote the algebraic expression forthe Ervitatonl teraction of two particles of arbitrary mass separated by an aubitray distance ‘To simplify his task, he considered the force between two mass points (pricls with no size or shape), thereby eliminating the problems {hat the shape and size of the intereting bodies might reset. Newton confronted the following problem: Given two paticles with masses my and m, (m stancing for mass andthe subscripts and 2 identifying the particles) separned by a distance r. how large and in what direction ie ‘hei gravitational interacon? By “interaction” here, we mean the pul of my on m, oF of ma 0 my, Which, acoeding to Newton's third lw, are sual and opposte "rom very zeneral symmetry considerations, Newton reasoned that the force mast be along the ine connecting the two masses: oterwise, the two particles would begin 10 revolve around each ther, and a body allowed ofall firey onthe earth would acquire horizontal as well 35 ‘etcal motion, contrary to what actually oocurs in the real worl, ‘With the direction ofthe force setled, Newton tured to the magn tude of the fore, which, as we have aeady noted, has 4 geometrical component (the cstance between the particles) and anintinsic component (the masses of te particles). To obtain the distance pat of the fw of tavity, Newon reasoned that since the force of eavity spreads ut from 8 particle uniforaly and equally in all directions, the intensity ofthe force decreases with te square ofthe distance berween the particles. If this distance is doubled, the force is reduced 4-fld if the distance i ripe, the fore is rediced fol; and so on. We may sty the force varies inversely asthe quae of the distance (tbe inverse-square law). Note that ‘owing to this disance dependence, the ore of gravity gets weaker a the distance increases, but it never drops to zero. Therefore, the notion thi ‘me by can escape from the gravitational pull f another (for example, ftom te earth's gravity is false To incorponte into his laws the mass dependence of the force, Ne: ton first assumed that gravity is generated by mass and then thatthe strength ofthe ferce between two particles must depend symmetrically on their masses, sine otherwise the action and reaction of the particles would ot be equal and opposite. The ony algebraic combination that gives the ‘correct symmetry) i the prot mms of the two masses Combining hs expression withthe distance dependence ofthe force, "New wrote his la of gravity as follows, where Fisthe force of gravity rom We have abeady iscused the mass and distance pars ofthis fo. ‘mula bt whit abou the factor G? From where does it come? This factor, known as Newton's “universal constant of gravity.” is absolutely essen without tthe formula would be wrong on two count: It Would give ‘ch too lage vale forthe strength ofthe gravitational force, and it ‘would be incomplete dimensionally inthe sense that is space, time, and ‘mass ingredients would be wrong. Noe that force is mass times aceclera- don according to Newton's second law of motion and acceleration is Tength overtime squared, so that force is mass times length overtime squared. But without G, the formula fr force would be mass imes mas ‘over length squared, which is not force. To change this lst combination ‘of mass and length tothe corect one for force, Newion multiplied it by the constant G, which ha just the right combination of space-time and mass ingredients to ive the compete Newtonian formula the corect Space-time-miss ingredients, and thereby obtained the corect dimen Sons in terms of oar basic physical entities, The space-time mass com positon of G is length cubed divided by the product of mass and time Square. To put if differently, Gis expressed as erg ec, and iis ‘merical value (First measured by Henry Cavendish abouts centary and a fal after Newon discovered the inverse-square lw of gravity is 6.668 % 10-* emg sec With Newon’s lw of gravity and his second law of motion, astrono- ‘my advanced fom a hitorsmiss science to precise mathematical disci pine. This was particularly true of the study’ of planetary orbits, which {developed into what ws called “celesal mechanics," one ofthe most beautfl and reatest achievements of the human mind, The power of "Newtons lw of gravity, along with hi laws of motion o solve problems that stem fom the gravitational interaction of bodies is evident at once when these laws are applied to determining the orbits of planet around the sin. The combined elfors of Brahe and Kepet, which led to the ‘empirical discovery ofthe nature ofthe planetary orbits (Keper’s three laws of planetary motion), represented some 60 man-years of labor, But vith Neon’ awe, one ca each te same goal in a mater of an hou or ‘more. This diferenceiustrates the great predictive power of a corect theory combined with comet logie (mathematics). "Newton futher demonstated the power of his laws by correctly explaining the phenomenon of the tides asa consequence ofthe pravita- tional pull ofthe moon and sun on the earth's oceans, lakes, and iver. He showed thatthe gravitational frce varies inversely a the cube ofthe distance Because the tidal pul i given by the diference between the pull (pertnit mass on the earths bodies of water and the pll per unit mass on the ea as a whcle. Because the moon i about 400 mes closer than the sun is tidal pull about twice that ofthe sun even though the suns total frviational all onthe earth asa whole is about 180 times that ofthe “Although Newton is most famous fr his laws of motion and bis awe of gravity, he made other important scientific discoveries. His work In ‘optics is paricully noteworthy because ofits practical and theoretical Importance. Although Kepler had developed hi dioptric showing how rages are formed with lenses and Galileo had built his telescope, very lie was known sbout the nature of light or ow its propagated. Newion took the first big step in explaining the ature of light by showing that a team of white light is spread out ino a band of colors (2 spectrin) ranging fom redo volt after pasing through a wiangular prism, thus proving that whit lights “white” because tsa mintre of ligt fall the diferent colos. He supported this conclusion by showing tha if one ofthe colored beams leaving the prism is sent through an identical second Prism, the colored beam does nt fan out into the spectam, asthe white beam did, but remains the same as it was before entering the second. prism. This mears that te colors ae in the white eam and notin the Prism. Newton showed tht ithe fan af colores from the fst prism passes through an identical inverted prism, the beam of white ight reappears, showing thatthe second psn reverses the action ofthe fist pis by. recombining alle colors. Newton thus demonstrated a very important property of light propagaton—its reversibility. This means that ifthe ‘izeton ofa beas of Hight passing through a given medium ora series of filferent media (br example, air, water las) i reversed a any point, ‘he team simply retraces its path This phenomenon of reversibility ‘very important in nature because, in general t does not occur. That it oes inthis instance has raised some very important questions about the laws of nature in general, because they seem to india that reversibility should be as common in mature as imeveriiliy. Newton experimented. with lenses and mirrors and showed that a concave spherical mirror (ich he ground and polished himself fom new glass) forms an image 4st asa Jens dors, but one that is fice of the undesable chromatic sberation (a surounding colored rm that attends the image formed by a Jens. He conectyatibuted the chromatic aberration of lens to slight rismati shape, a one passes from its center to its edge, and noted tht ‘ving to the absence of chromatic aeration a telescope with a concave ‘mor (a elect gives sharper images than one with lens (a efector. This has made avast difference in the use of large astronomical tle scopes, without which many ofthe remarkable cosmic discoveries fllow- ‘ing Newton could not have been made From the ine of Archimedes, the students of natural phenomena had wondered and speculated about the nature of light and ow iis propa- ated. Galileo hd red, very crudely and unsuccessfully to measure the Speed of fight, nd Kepler had speculated about is nature, but Newion ‘asthe first to propose a precise theory about its propagation. He was led {ois theory by noting tht when a beam of ight strikes an opague screen with very sharp edge, the ede ofthe shadow ofthe seen cast ona tite wall lose to the screen appears fo Beas sharp as that ofthe screen itself, Ieappeared to Newton that none of the beam bent around the edge ‘ofthe screen and nto the shadow, a i would flight were propagated asa trave. Newton believed this result meant that ight aves in a Staight ine pst a sharp edge (contrary to the behavior of, for example, a wave of ound or water) instead of Being difacted as a wave would be. He therefore concluded that light consis of pails that, acoeding to his fist lw of motion, must travel in staight lines, since the edge of the scoen exers no fee on the ight. This conclusion med the bi ofthe [Newtonian corpuscular theory of ight, hich was ater discarded in favor ofthe wave theory when more accurate observations showed that the edge ‘ofthe sren’s shadow is not sharp but fuzzy, so thatthe beam is df= fracted around a sharp edge. Moreover the Newtonian corpuscular theory ‘of igh requires thatthe speed of light in dense mediom such as glss oF Water be greater thin is speed in a rae medium such as air oF in a ‘actum, which i contrary tothe experimental evidence. 'Newlon, in his Optits, propounded a series of remarkable ques tions, which showed how deeply he was concerned abut light. Inthe last ofthese questions he suggested that under cerain circumstances, light fd matter might be changed into each other. This doesnot mean that [Newton had the slightest notion about relativity theory, but the theory shows that Newon's conjecture was corect. "Although Newton was the dominant physical siems from the late 17th othe eariy Ith century, otber brillant scieatsts made substantial

You might also like