Available online
Description
The programme traces the development of newton's three laws of motion, how their application led to the discovery of the planet Neptune and how they are applied today to navigate interplanetary probes.
The programme traces the development of newton's three laws of motion, how their application led to the discovery of the planet Neptune and how they are applied today to navigate interplanetary probes.
| Module code and title: | S354, Understanding space and time |
|---|---|
| Item code: | S354; 02 |
| First transmission date: | 14-03-1979 |
| Published: | 1979 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:24:22 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Ian Rosenbloom |
| Contributors: | George Abell; Alan Cooper |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Jet propulsion lab.; NASA; Neptune; Newton's Laws of Motion explained; Planet discovery; Terrestrial/celestial mechanics; Universal Gravitation; Voyager mission |
| Footage description: | Alan Cooper, inside the library at Trinity College, Cambridge, introduces the programme. He looks through some of Newton's books, among them Galileo's "Dialogues", Euclid's "Elements" and Newton's "Principia". Cooper summarises Newton's three laws of motion. Film shots of ice skaters illustrate the laws in practice. George Abell explains how Newton arrived at the idea that the force of gravitation depends on the masses of both attracting objects and is inversely proportional to the square of their separation. Abell goes on to explain how Newton tested this idea. Abell uses animations and writes on a pad to illustrate his points. With the aid of animations, Alan Cooper explains how Newton's laws of motion were applied by astronomers to predict the existence and orbit of the planet Neptune. George Abell goes on to describe the events which led to the discovery of Neptune. Film shots simulate a Voyager spacecraft in flight. Alan Cooper, in the control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explains how Newton's laws are applied to navigation of Voyager space probes to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond. Animation show orbits of the planets, and trajectories of the spacecraft. Charles Kohlhase, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explains, by use of computer animations, why launch time was so critical for the Voyager missions. He goes on to describe the path of Voyager through the Jovian system. Alan Cooper sums up. |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/72918 |
| Production number: | FOUS063E |
| Videofinder number: | 2034 |
| Available to public: | no |
