LESSON 1:

MOTIONS IN THE SKY

Earth is always in motion. It spins and rotates about its axis as it revolves around the sun. These motions of Earth
account many celestial phenomena that we perceive as natural occurrences.

Celestial sphere
⮚ The Ancient Greeks considered Earth to be enclosed in a hollow sphere called celestial sphere where
the stars, the sun, and other heavenly bodies were embedded.
⮚ They thought that the motion of the heavens was caused by the rotation of the celestial sphere about a
fixed earth.
⮚ The points where Earth’s rotational axis cut this sphere are called North Celestial Pole (NCP) and South
Celestial Pole (SCP).
⮚ The celestial equator is the projection of earth’s equator in the celestial sphere.
⮚ The path that the sun appears to take around the celestial sphere is called the ecliptic. It is inclined 23.5
degrees with respect to the celestial equator.
⮚ The two points on the ecliptic with the greatest distance from the celestial equator are referred to as
solstices.
⮚ The point on the ecliptic where the sun is at the northernmost point above the celestial equator or at its
highest in the sky is called summer solstice.
⮚ The winter solstice occurs when the sun is at its southernmost position or at its lowest in the sky.
⮚ The two points where the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator are known as equinoxes.
⮚ Autumnal equinox happens on or near Sept. 22.
⮚ Vernal or spring equinox happens on or near March 21.

Figure 8.1 The Celestial Sphere

⮚ The ecliptic goes through a set of groups of stars

called constellations.
⮚ The sequence of constellations is called zodiac.
⮚ Different sets of constellations are visible in
earth’s night sky at different times of the year.
Figure 8.2 The 12 Principal Constellations of the Zodiac
Precession of the Equinoxes
⮚ Precession is a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body. Earth requires 26000
years to complete one cycle of precession. A complete cycle of precession traces a cone.
⮚ Earth’s precession was historically called precession of the equinox because the position of the equinox
was slowly and gradually changing with respect to some background stars.

Diurnal and Annual Motion

⮚ The apparent daily motion of stars and other celestial bodies across the sky caused by Earth’s rotation
about its axis is termed as diurnal motion. It is responsible for the daily rising and setting of the sun and
the stars.
⮚ Annual motion accounts for the visibility of a zodiacal constellation at a specific time of the year. Along
with the tilt of Earth’s axis, it is also responsible for our seasons.
⮚ Annual motion is apparent motion of the sun caused by Earth’s revolution around.

MODELS OF THE UNIVERSE

Geocentric model
⮚ Geocentric model considers Earth as the center of the universe.
⮚ The following were some geocentric models of the universe proposed by the Greeks. In all these
models, Earth and the other heavenly bodies were assumed to be spheres.

Pythagorean model
⮚ Pythagoras was acknowledged to be the first to assert that the
Earth is round and that the heavenly bodies move in circles.
⮚ He also considered that motions of planets were
mathematically related to musical sounds and numbers. This
ideas are called “The Music of the Sphere”.
⮚ The Greek philosopher and teacher Plato adopted the
Pythagorean view of the motion of heavenly bodies as
combinations of circular motion about Earth. He assumed that
all motions in the universe are perfectly circular and that all
heavenly bodies are ethereal or perfect.

⮚ Most of the time, planets moved from west to

east as predicted. But occasionally, they backtrack
for a while, that is, they moved westward before
resuming eastward motion. This is called retrograde
motion.

⮚ Plato challenged his students and followers

with this problem: “What circular motions, uniform and
perfectly regular, are to be admitted as hypotheses so
that it might be possible to save the appearances
presented by the planets? This challenge is known as
“Plato’s Saving the Appearances”.
 Eudoxus’ model
⮚ Eudoxus was the first to “save the appearances”
using a series of 27 concentric spheres on which the sun,
the moon, and the planets moved in perfect circular
motion. The breakdown of the 27 spheres is as follows: 1
sphere for fixed stars, 3 spheres for the sun, 3 spheres for
the moon, and 4 spheres for each of five known planets
at that time which were Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus,
and Mercury.

Aristotle’s model
⮚ The Aristotelian model also had the 27 celestial spheres of
Eudoxus. In addition, Aristotle used 27 buffering spheres
between the celestial spheres of Eudoxus and an outermost
sphere that was the domain of the Prime Mover (rotated this
outermost sphere with constant angular speed, causing the
other spheres to rotate as well.
⮚ Aristotle divided the universe into two-- the terrestrial and the
celestial realm - with the orbit of the moon as the boundary.
This realm was composed of 4 primary elements in this
sequence: earth, water, air, and fire. In this realm, objects move
naturally according to their material composition.
⮚ According to Aristotle, Earth is a sphere based on the following
observations:
1. It is only at the surface of a sphere that all objects fall
straight down.
2. The view of the constellations changes as one travels from North to South.
3. The shadow of Earth was round during lunar eclipses.
⮚ Aristotle’s model was based on the 3 types of terrestrial motion: natural, violent, and alteration.
1. Natural motion is related to the tendency of an object to seek its natural place in the universe.
2. Terrestrial objects can be compelled to move in unnatural ways by the application of a force.
This motion is considered violent motion.
3. Alteration is the ability of an object to change.

Ptolemy’s model
⮚ Apollonius, known as “the Great Geometer”,
introduced the idea of an epicycle to explain planetary
motion.
⮚ An epicycle is a circle on which planet moves. The
center of this small circle in turn moves around Earth along a
bigger circular path called deferent.
⮚ Around 140 AD, Ptolemy devised a more complex
epicycle model. He defined a point on the other side of the
center of the deferent and called equant. The equant and
the center of Earth are the equidistant from the center of the deferent.
Heliocentric model
Heliocentric model assumes the sun to be at the center of the universe.

Copernican model
⮚ Nicholas Copernicus asserted that Earth spins on its axis everyday and revolves around the sun just like
the other planets.
⮚ Only the moon orbits Earth.
⮚ He still maintained the concept of uniform circular motion and the epicycle of Ptolemy.

THE BIRTH OF MODERN ASTRONOMY

⮚ After the death of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler made significant
contributions in modern astronomy. Their approach to astronomy were different from one another.
⮚ Tycho Brahe was a good collector of astronomical date
⮚ Kepler was a mathematician and pure theorist.
⮚ Galileo was an experimentalist. He used simple experiments and deductions in advancing his view of
the universe.

Tycho Brahe’s Universe

⮚ Tycho Brahe was considered the last and the greatest astronomer prior to the invention of the
telescope.
⮚ In his observatory, he accurately measured and recorded the positions of the sun, moon, and planets
for 20 years. Realizing that his date did not fit into the models of Ptolemy and Copernicus, he proposed
his own model of the universe.
⮚ In his universe, the sun orbited Earth while the other planets orbited the sun.

Galileo’s Astronomical Observations

⮚ The moon has mountains, valleys, and craters.
⮚ The surface of the sun has some blemishes, which are called sunspots.
⮚ Jupiter has 4 moons revolving around it.
⮚ Venus has phases similar to the moon.
⮚ Many stars too faint to be seen by the naked eye became visible with his telescope.

Kepler’s Law of Planetary Motion

⮚ Johannes Kepler served as an assistant to Tycho Brahe. He inherited the numerous observational data
on planetary motion of Brahe when the latter died.
 ⮚ Kepler was able to formulate his 3 laws of planetary motion.
o FIrst Law: Law of Ellipses
o Second Law: Law of Equal Areas
o Third Law: law of Harmonies

Perihelion and Aphelion

⮚ The first law is known as the law of ellipses. It states that the planets move in ellipses having a common
focus situated at the sun. The other focus is empty.

⮚ The second law is called the law of equal areas. The planet moves around the sun in such a way that a
line drawn from the sun to the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals of the time. For this to be
true, the planet moves fastest at perihelion on slowest at aphelion.

⮚ Kepler’s third law is known as the law of harmonies. It states that the squares of the periods of the
planets are proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun. Period is the time to make
one complete revolution around the sun.
 LESSON 2:
NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

According to Aristotle, force is needed to make an object move. He proposed that in the celestial
realm, the Prime Mover continuously supplies the force that moves the entire universe. Aristotle also added that
the speed acquired by the object is proportional to the force applied. The bigger the force, the faster the
object moves. Once the force is removed, the object stops moving.

Galileo developed ideas about motion contrary to

Aristotelian theory. With his thought experiment on a perfect ball
rolling on an inclined plane and free from all external and accidental
obstacles, he realized that the ball would speed up when rolling
down the slope and slow down when rolling up. When placed on a
level surface, the ball would neither speed up nor slow down but
continue its motion forever. He concluded that the natural tendency
of a moving object is to continue moving, and that no force is
required to keep it moving.

LAWS OF MOTION (SIMPLIFIED)

⮚ The laws of motion were formulated by Isaac Newton in his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica.
⮚ The three laws of motion were summarized as follows:
o LAW OF INERTIA – “A body at rest will remain at rest or in motion will continue to move with a
constant velocity unless acted by an unbalanced external force.”
o Inertia – the property of a body that tends to resist a change in its state of motion
o Examples:
▪ A bicycle or car will keep moving unless the rider or driver applies a frictional force
through the brakes to stop it.
▪ A driver or passenger in a moving car who is not wearing a seat belt will be thrown
forward when the car suddenly stops because he remains in motion.
o LAW OF ACCELERATION – “An unbalanced force acting on a body produces acceleration.”
o Acceleration – it is directly proportional to the unbalanced force applied and inversely
proportional to the mass of the body
o Examples:
▪ It takes a smaller extra force to propel a small yacht at sea than to propel a supertanker
because the latter (second) has a greater mass than the former (first).
▪ The effect of a 10-newton force on a baseball would be much greater than that same
force acting on a truck.
o LAW OF INTERACTION – “For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction force.”
o Examples:
▪ A person is unable to walk on the ground without the ground’s frictional force.
▪ A ball thrown onto the ground exerts a downward force; in response, the ground exerts
an upward force on the ball and it bounces.