Gravity and weight
Weight = mass × g, gravity on other worlds, and how gravity holds the Moon and the planets in orbit.
Four lessons that start with questions. Weigh yourself on the Moon and Jupiter, switch off the Earth's gravity and watch the Moon fly away, ride the planets round the Sun, spin a tilted Earth through the seasons and race a beam of light to the stars. Get one wrong and the diagram shows you why. Prefer to read first? Every lesson has animated notes and a lab you can drag things around in.
Weight = mass × g, gravity on other worlds, and how gravity holds the Moon and the planets in orbit.
The Sun, its eight planets and their orbits, moons, asteroids, comets and satellites, and the scale of it all.
Why we have day and night, why the Earth's tilt gives us seasons, and how day length changes round the world.
The Sun as a star, our galaxy and others, and measuring the vast distances of space in light years.
Five quick diagram questions a day from this unit. The ones you get wrong come back sooner. Progress saves in this browser.
Mapped to the KS3 national curriculum (Physics: space physics).
| Programme of study | Lesson |
|---|---|
| gravity force, weight = mass × gravitational field strength (g); on Earth g = 10 N/kg, different on other planets and stars | 30.1 |
| gravity forces between the Earth and the Moon, and between the Earth and the Sun (qualitative only) | 30.1, 30.2 |
| our Sun as a star, other stars in our galaxy, other galaxies | 30.4 |
| the seasons and the Earth's tilt, day length at different times of year, in different hemispheres | 30.3 |
| the light year as a unit of astronomical distance | 30.4 |