Newton, Einstien & Gravity

So now they get down and dirty.
There is a lot of stuff in this show
that seems surface but I bet a nickle to
a Peter Pan Donut that this stuff is on test 1.

So, here it goes.

First, since the Greeks, astronomers have sought
rules by which heavenly bodies were regulated.

Aristotle thought there were 2 forces.
Natural and violent.  So much for philosophers.

Galileo, who was having enough trouble with 
the Catholic church anyway, came up with te idea
of CONSTANT ACCELERATION.  He proved this to
The Royal Academy by having Wrenn stand at the
bottom of the Pizza Tower and dropping first
a 100 kilos of feathers and cotton.  
They both hit at the same time.  Then 100 kilos
of iron cannon balls and an anvil.  Before they
hit the ground Wrenn was convinced that all bodies
fall at the same speed.  CONSTANT ACCELERATION!
(Historical note: this may not be totally accurate
but the wood engraving they showed on TV sure did 
suggest something like this.)

Kepler thought planets were attracted to the sun by
magnetic force. (ok- if 1,568 angels can sit on the
head of a pin then I guess planets can be magentic)

Then Newton, what a genius--could he have been an 
alien?, came up with his 3 laws.
1) Inertia--bodies remain at rest till something
            moves them (like my first husband)
2) Movement is porportional to mass and distance.
            INVERSE SQUARES--know this one.
3) For every action there is an equal and opposite
             reaction. (I used to hear this from
             my boyfriend each time we argued)

Then came Albert IQ Einstien.  Did you see
the movie "IQ"?  Well, Ablert, who also played 
the violin, came up with SPECIFIC RELATIVITY.
This means there are universal laws that are
the same throughout the universe. (Try to prove
that one wrong!--were you there Charlie?)

Then he came up with GENERAL RELATIVITY which
said that E=MC squared.
With this we get four dimensions and a term
called SPACETIME.  (What's wrong with the name
SPIME?--I think its better and would SELL)

So, Einstien gave us a model with which to view
things extremely large (the universe) and small
(the atom).  

Now what does the book do with this material?

Know the definitions for:
MASS (not a religious experience)
WEIGHT
INVERSE SQUARE LAW ($50 fine if broken)
Who wrote Principia?(half a name is better than none)
All 3 Newton laws.
TIME DILATION (10 cm before crowning--ha ha)
LENGTH CONTRACTION (Is this a nursing course?)
GRAVITY WAVES (Who's buried in Grant's tomb)
GRAVITATIONAL RED SHIFT (1919)
CURVATURE of SPACETIME  (voyager episode 1)
PRINCIPLE of EQUIVALENCE --(put 6 men is a bag
                            pick out 1 and they are
                            --you get the drift)

Listen, on the test I know they will play the 
semantics game.  BE PREPARED for super cross-word 
puzzles.  Say, why can't they shoot a .gif on the 
screen and just let us name it?  Isn't astronomy 
about knowing what you are looking at?

I leave you with one thought...
The warping of space in the presence of mass is