
If there is another planet with a larger mass than the Earth and it originally started at a distance from the moon equal to the distance that the Earth is from the moon, would the moon revolve around the Earth or the other planet?.Based on Newton’s Law of Gravitation, why is the gravity on the moon so different from the gravity on the Earth?.In turn, the Earth has an attraction to the Sun, thus it orbits the Sun.Īsk students the following questions and have them explain their ideas based on Newton’s Law of Gravitation. Explain to students that we are attracted to the Earth because the Earth is the largest object close to us.Ask students to ponder why, if the Sun is the largest object in the universe, are we not just drawn straight into the Sun instead of the Earth.Another way to put it is that two large objects that are close together are going to have more magnetism toward each other than two small objects sitting far apart. Translate Newton’s Law of Gravity to explain that the closer and larger two objects are, the more they are attracted to each other.Explain Newton’s Law of Gravitation to your students as follows: Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.


If not, explain to students that the Sun is the largest object in the universe.

