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  • Current Syllabus
  • Advanced Mechanics
  • Electromagnetism
  • The Nature of Light
  • From the Universe to the Atom
  • Pre-2019 Syllabus
    • Space
    • Motors and Generators
    • From Ideas to Implementation
    • Astrophysics
  • Other Subjects
  • EasyChem – HSC Chemistry
  • EasyHSC – HSC Business Studies
  • EasyBio – HSC Biology
  • Search

The Earth’s Gravitational Field

Space > The Earth's Gravitational Field

The Earth has a gravitational field that exerts a force on objects both on it and around it

Students learn to:

  • define weight as the force on an object due to a gravitational field explain that a change in gravitational potential energy is related to work done
  • Explain that a change in gravitational potential energy is related to work done
  • define gravitational potential energy as the work done to move an object from a very large distance away to a point in a gravitational field

Students:

  • perform an investigation and gather information to determine a value for acceleration due to gravity using pendulum motion or computer assisted technology and identify reason for possible variations from the value 9.8 ms-2
  • gather secondary information to predict the value of acceleration due to gravity on other planets
  • analyse information using the expression:

    to determine the weight force for a body on Earth and for the same body on other planets

Extract from Physics Stage 6 Syllabus (Amended October 2002). © 2009, Board of Studies NSW.

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