PHYSICAL SCIENCE

QUARTER 4 WEEK 1-2

LEARNING COMPETENCIES
 Explain how the Greeks knew that the Earth is spherical

 Cite examples of astronomical phenomena known to astronomers before the advent of

telescopes
 Explain how Brahe’s innovations and extensive collection of data in observational
astronomy paved the way for Kepler’s discovery of his laws of planetary motion
 Compare and contrast the Aristotelian and Galilean conceptions of vertical motion,
horizontal motion, and projectile motion.
 Explain how Galileo inferred that objects in vacuum fall with uniform acceleration, and
that force is not necessary to sustain horizontal motion
 Explain the subtle distinction between Newton’s 1st Law of Motion (or Law of Inertia) and
Galileo’s assertion that force is not necessary to sustain horizontal motion
THE UNIVERSE: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ANCIENT GREAT THINKERS

- The Mesopotamian as accounted in their mythology around 6th century BC,

described Earth as a flat disk floating in the ocean and bounded by a spherical sky.
- Models of Universe:
1. Geocentric model or Earth-centered- The Earth was at the center and rest of the
planets and heavenly bodies revolved around it. The Earth and other heavenly
bodies were assumed to be spheres. They were convinced that the Earth was not flat
instead it was spherical.
2. Heliocentric model or Sun-centered- The Sun was at the center and the rest of the
heavenly bodies including the Earth moved around it.
NOTABLE GREEK ACHIEVEMENTS

 Homer- Iliad and Odyssey; Summaries of Legends

 Thales- Rational inquiry leads to knowledge of universe
 Anaximander- Universal medium; primitive cosmology
 Pythagoras- Mathematical representation of universe; round Earth
 Philolaus- Earth orbits a central fire
 Anaxagoras- Moon reflects sunlight; correct explanation of eclipses
 Plato- Material world is imperfect; deduce properties of universe by reason
NOTABLE GREEK ACHIEVEMENTS

 Eudoxus- First mathematical cosmology; nested spheres

 Aristotle- Concept of Physical Laws; Proof that Earth is round
 Aristarchus- Relative sizes, distance of Sun and Moon; First Heliocentric Theory
 Eratosthenes- Accurate size of the Earth
 Apollonius- Introduction of the epicycles
 Hipparchus- Full mathematical epicyclic cosmology
 Ptolemy- Almagest; elaborate epicyclic model
ARISTOTLE
- is the most notable student of Plato who first adopted the physical laws
on how they work, why they happen and what is their context. He
thought that the Earth was the center of the universe and also that the
circular motions are the only natural motions.
- He also believed that the world was composed of four elements: Earth,
Air, Fire, and Water. In the context of his adopted physical laws, he
could prove that the universe and the Earth was spherical.
- 3 proofs are the following:
1. Only at the surface of a sphere do all falling objects reach the center by
falling straight down.
2. As one travels from North to South, the position of constellations alter.
3. The shadow of the Earth was described to be a curved whenever lunar
eclipses occur.
ARISTARCHUS

 He adopted the idea that the Sun is the center of the universe and not
the Earth. This conclusion was based on the arguments which showed
that the Sun is larger than the Earth. This Heliocentric hypothesis was
not able to attract many followers during that time because he lacked
with concrete evidence that the Earth was in motion.
PTOLEMY

- Claudius Ptolemaeus lived in the middle of the second century A.D. He

tackled on summarizing the world’s knowledge of astronomy. He
published a book named Almagest. The thirteen books of Almagest
scope is a summary of the observed motion of the planets to a detailed
study of the motions of the Sun and Moon, from a description of the
workings of all the astronomical instruments of the day to a
reproduction of the star catalogue of Hipparchus and most importantly,
the construction of detailed models of the planetary motions.
- The greatest contribution of Ptolemy was his models where these
models were able to predict the planetary position that they were used
for the next 1,000 years.
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

- Heliocentric view
- In the sun-centered system of Copernicus, the most pleasing view was
that relative distances of the plants could be derived and found to have
certain regularity, the spacing between planets growing consistently
with distance from the sun.
- Copernicus was able to find out the relative speeds of the planets on
their orbit where he found that each planet on their orbit moves more
slowly than the next planet closer to the sun. Similar to Aristarchus long
before him, Copernicus distinguish that the sun is the largest body in
the solar system which he considered a strong argument as the sun is
the center.
TYCHO BRAHE

- His primary contribution was a massive collection of accurate

observations of planetary positions was crucial to subsequent advances
towards the understanding of the planetary motions.
- He made more systematic observations in recording planetary positions
at times other than just significant turning points in their motions. He
also made several observations in many cases to improve their
accuracy.
JOHANNES KEPLER

- The 3 Laws of Planetary Motion

1. The Law of Ellipses- all planets orbit the sun in a path that resembles an
ellipse, with the sun being located at one of the foci of that ellipse
2. The Law of Equal Areas- describes the speed at which any given planet
will move while orbiting the sun. The speed at which any planet moves
through space is constantly changing. A planet moves fastest when it is
closest to the sun and slowest when it is furthest from the sun. Yet, an
imaginary line were drawn from the center of the planet to the center
of the sun, that line would sweep out the same area in equal periods of
time.
3. The Law of Harmonies- The comparison being made is that the ratio of
the squares of the periods to the cubes of their average distances from
the sun is the same for every one of the planets.
HANS LIPPERSHEY

- Was a German-Dutch spectacle-maker

- He is commonly associated with the invention of the telescope
GALILEO GALILEI

- Was an astronomer, physicist, and engineer

- First to use the telescope to study the heavens
- Concerned in knowing how the laws of nature operated
GALILEO GALILEI

- Some of Galileo’s observations:

1. The moon was not a perfect sphere but was covered with craters and mountains
2. The broad brand of the Milky Way was comprised of countless stars.
3. Jupiter was attended with four satellites whose motions were observed long enough
by Galileo to establish that they orbited the parent planet
4. Venus changed its appearance as much as the moon does. Venus showed that it
orbits around the sun. Venus undergoes phases as varying portions of the sunlit side
are visible from Earth
5. The sunspots, dark blemishes seen crossing the face of the sun and showed that
they are really on the sun and were not small planets orbiting close to it.
ISAAC NEWTON
- Was a physicist and mathematician who developed the principles of
modern physics, including the laws of motion
- Also famous for his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) or Principia
- Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion:
1. “an object that is at rest will remain at rest or an object that is moving
will continue moving in a straight line with constant speed, if and only if
the net force on that object is zero” or Law of Inertia
2. “when a force acts on an object, it will cause the object to accelerate.
The larger the mass of the object, the greater the force will be needed
to cause it to accelerate”
3. “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”
NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION

- based on his observation of a falling apple

- laws responsible for the motion on Earth was also applicable in the universe
wherever it was located
- the same force of attraction would act between any 2 masses.
Mass
- is of 2 kinds:
1. Inertial mass- the kind of mass related to the inertia of an object
2. Gravitational mass- determines the size of the gravitational attraction between two
objects as used in the law of gravitation.
LAWS OF PHYSICS

 The Concept of Motion

- Aristotle thought that heavy objects fall faster than light objects in proportion to
their weight. Galileo argued that the motion of a falling body should be nearly
dependent of its weight and should have constant acceleration through careful
measurements of distances and time experiments.
- Distance is the length of the part travelled from starting point to final point.
- Displacement is the length of the part travelled from the starting point to final point
with consideration to the direction.
- Speed is the rate at which distance is covered.
THE CONCEPT OF
MOTION

 Distance
THE CONCEPT OF
MOTION

 Displacement
THE CONCEPT OF
MOTION

 Speed
THE CONCEPT OF MOTION

- Velocity is the displacement in a given time interval.

- Acceleration is a measure of how fast the velocity changes with respect to time.
Accelerating means moving faster/moving slower and/or changing direction
- Free fall-a body in vertical motion where gravity is the only force acting on it. It could
be an object thrown upward (positive initial velocity), thrown downward (negative
initial velocity) or dropped (zero initial velocity).
- Projectile- a body or a particle in two-dimensional motion given an initial velocity
and it moves along a curved path under the influence of gravity alone
THE CONCEPT OF
MOTION

 Velocity
THE CONCEPT OF
MOTION

Acceleration
VIEWS ON MOTION
MOTION ARISTOTELIAN CONCEPT GALILEAN CONCEPT
Horizontal Motion Force is required to maintain horizontal Objects moving in a straight line in a
motion constant speed requires no force to
keep them moving

All moving bodies naturally come at rest It will continue in motion due to inertia
unless an external force acts on them
Vertical Motion A. Freefall is a natural motion occurring A. Objects move downward because
due to the tendency of nature to gravity disturbs their motion.
established balance to bring disturbed
elements to its natural resting place.
B. The rate of fall or acceleration of an
B. Heavier objects have more earthly
object is independent of their mass.
elements than lighter ones hence they
fall should fall faster. It will take
shorter time to reach the ground C. The motion of falling objects is
C. Warmer bodies have an access on uniformly accelerated.
fiery elements hence they ascend
faster.
VIEWS ON MOTION

Projectile motion The motion of a projectile is A projectile moves two-

parallel to the ground until it is dimensional motion in a
the object's time to fall back parabolic path The horizontal
into the ground. motion component has zero
acceleration (constant speed
horizontally) and vertical
acceleration is constant.
UNIFORM ACCELERATION

 Objects in Vacuum Fall with Uniform Acceleration

- Galileo was interested by the behavior of falling objects. He knew that as falling
objects go down, they increase their speed as they go down. This change in speed is
acceleration. Although he did not have any tool to measure this change, so he used
inclined planes to reduce the acceleration of the moving bodies. He was then able to
take a close look at the moving bodies carefully.
- With his experiments, Galileo proved that regardless of their masses and air
resistance two objects dropped simultaneously will reach the ground at the same
time. He also discovered that objects fall with uniform acceleration.
UNIFORM ACCELERATION

- For Galileo, constant acceleration means steady, incremental additions of velocity

evenly proportionate to time. The following graphs show the comparison between
motion of objects with constant velocity no object with constant acceleration.
- To have a constant velocity, an object must have a constant speed (steady) in a
constant direction. If an object maintains a constant or a uniform change in its
velocity in a given time interval along a straight line, then it is said to have a constant
acceleration.
UNIFORM ACCELERATION

 Force is Not Necessary to Sustain Horizontal Motion

- Aristotle believed that forces are necessary to keep objects in motion. Although a
force is needed to start an object moving, Galileo believed that force was not
necessary to sustain motion.
- Galileo rolled balls down inclined planes and observed and recorded the gain in
speed as the rolling continued. On downward-sloping planes, the force of gravity
increases a ball’s speed while on an upward slope, the force of gravity decreases a
ball’s speed. If smoother planes were used, the ball rolled up the opposite plane
closer to the initial height. The difference between initial and final heights was
because friction. He postulated the ball would reach exactly the same height if
friction could be eliminated.
UNIFORM ACCELERATION

₋ With regards to the ball rolling on a level surface, the ball neither rolls with nor
against the vertical force of gravity. It neither slows down or speeds up. It maintains a
constant speed. Galileo reasoned that a ball would move forever if it is in horizontal
motion. If friction were entirely absent once it is moving, no force is needed to keep
it moving except for the force needed to overcome friction. A moving object needs
no force to keep it moving. when friction is absent. Such ball would remain in motion
all by itself of its own inertia.
UNIFORM ACCELERATION

 Cause of Motion
- For nearly 2000 years, the accepted opinion was Aristotle’s concept that moving objects
would stop because the natural state of objects was to be at ‘rest’. However, as for
Galileo, once the ball is in motion, no force is needed to keep it moving except for the
force needed to overcome friction. Friction is an opposing external force that prevents its
continued motion. A moving object needs no force to keep it moving when friction is
absent. It will remain in motion all by itself.
- In 1665, Sir Isaac Newton made great revolution in the growth of Science primarily in
Physics with his famous Laws of Motion. He established a new set of ideas with His three
(3) Laws of Motion that includes the 1st Law of Motion more popularly known as the Law
of Inertia. In his original manuscript the Law of Inertia was stated as: “An object at rest is
inclined to stay at rest. And an object in motion tends to continue to move in a straight
line with a constant speed unless an external force acts on it.”
UNIFORM ACCELERATION

- This means that things tend to keep on doing what they are already doing. Notebooks on top of
the table are in a rest state, they tend to stay at rest even when you quickly snap the tablecloth or
paper underneath. “Everybody tends to preserve in its state of rest, or in state of uniform
motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by some forces impressed
thereon.”
- If you slide a coin along the road, the coin soon comes to rest. If you let it slide along an ice rink, it
slides for a longer time and distance. If you let it slide along a table which it constantly emits air, it
continuous to moves. This is because the table offers no friction. A moving object tends to move
in a straight line indefinitely in the absence of a force.
- Inertia is the natural inclination of any object to maintain state of rest or to remain in uniform
motion in a straight line. Resisting changes in its state depends upon its mass. It is the
fundamental property of matter for an object to be accelerated or decelerated where it is being
opposed. The more mass the object has, the greater is the tendency to resist changes in motion.