Astronomy › Section C · Orbits and gravity › Topic C.2
Newton's great synthesis
Kepler showed how planets move; Isaac Newton set out to explain why. His three laws of motion, together with the ideas of momentum, mass, density and angular momentum, are the toolkit astronomers still use for everything from rockets to collapsing clouds of gas.
In this topic
- From description to explanation
- The first law: inertia
- Velocity, momentum and the second law
- Worked example: a spacecraft thruster
- The third law: forces come in pairs
- Worked example: Earth falls towards you
- Mass, volume and density
- Worked example: Saturn's density
- Angular momentum
- Worked example: an asteroid's two speeds
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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