Newton's Law of Gravitation - Derived From Scratch
A simple way to model the gravitational field of an object is to imagine a fixed number of "lines of force" that radiate from the object evenly into space.
Assumption #1
Let's suppose the number of lines of force produced by an object is directly proportional to its mass, so..
n=k*m
where n is the number of lines of force produced by the mass m and k is a constant.
Assumption #2
Now assume the density of the lines at any given point in space represents the strength of the gravitational field at that point. So at a distance r from the object the density of the lines of force is..
n/(surface area of a sphere of radius r) which is..
n/(4*pi*r^2)=k*m/(4*pi*r^2)=G*m/(r^2)
where G=k/(4*pi) is a constant.
This is Newton's famous law of gravitation. G is called the Universal Gravitational Constant. I think the more interesting thing here is the 1/(r^2) term.
I wonder if this simple method could be modified to give Einsteinian gravity, meaning the General Relativity model of gravity?
Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com