Science and Development I

Gravitation and Weightlessness

Gravitation is the movement towards the centre of an attractive force. In

other words, Gravitation involves the force of attraction between one body
and any other body in the universe. Naturally, there is a gravitational

force between one body and all others around it. This is what holds all
planets, stars, moons, suns, etc. as one gigantic entity called the universe.
The Earth as a planet is a gravitational force field and everything around it
experiences a gravitational pull towards its centre.

Weightlessness

Weightlessness is a feeling experienced by an object when there is no

force acting upon it against the pull of gravity. If you stand on a very long
ladder, you feel the contact force (of the ladder) i.e. the support of the
ladder, acting to balance the pull of gravity (the non-contact force). If
however the ladder is removed, you experience a weightless sensation as
you fall freely onto the ground. This feeling is common in situations of free
fall.

Astronauts in a Spacecraft

When a spacecraft and an astronaut inside it are orbiting the earth in a

circular path, there are two opposing forces at play on them. These are
forces involved in circular motion. The first one is centripetal force which
tends to pull them to the earth (gravitational attraction of the earth); and
the other is the centrifugal force, which tends to throw them away

From the earth. If these two opposing forces are equal, it will cancel the
weights of both the astronaut and the spacecraft so that the resultant
gravitational attraction of the earth on them will just be enough to keep
them on the orbit. Since the astronaut and the spacecraft are travelling on
the same orbit and moving at the same rate, he has the tendency to rise
to the ceiling or descend to the floor of the spacecraft. This is the cause of
the weightlessness of the astronauts and other objects in the spacecraft.

Astronauts on the Moon

When astronauts land on the moon, they find they have suddenly become
very light, such that they may need to hop, instead of walking from one
point to another on the moon. The reason for this is the reduced
gravitational pull of the moon compared to that of the earth. The moon’s
gravity is only one-sixth() of the earth’s gravity.

Effects of Weightlessness on the Human Body

It has been found that weightless-ness has the following effects on

astronauts:

(1)There is calcium loss from their bones,

(2)Their muscles become flabby and smaller, and
(3)Their limbs become thinner.

The middle age (1000 AD-1500 AD) man believed that the earth was at
the centre of other universes, the moon, stars, sun, and other heavenly
bodies.

Modern astronomy began in 1543 AD, the year Copernicus published

“Concerning the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres.” In his publication, he
stated that, “The sun sits... upon a royal throne ruling the planets which
circle around him...”

Between 1609 and 1638, Kepler, Galileo and some other scientists made
the modern man to understand that the earth is not the centre of the
universe but just another planet. In fact, the earth is a tiny speck in a
giant, endless universe.

Our sun is only one of the millions of suns. Below is the position of our
earth in our solar system.

The earth is spherical in shape and is made up of three parts, namely:

1. The Lithosphere: The Litho-sphere is the solid part of the earth

comprising the mountains, rocks, and other dry lands.
2. The hydrosphere: The hydrosphere is the liquid part of the earth. It
is made up of the oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, streams and ice caps.
It is ap-proximately two-thirds of the earth’s surface.
 3. The atmosphere: This is a blanket of gases enveloping the earth.

Rotation of the Earth

Rotation of the earth is the spinning of the earth on its own axis. The sun
is stationary and when the earth rotates towards the East, we say the sun
is rising from the East. In the evening time, we see the sun in the West,
and we say it sets in the West. Remember we are stationed on the earth
with the help of gravitational force. When

The earth’s rotation brings us face-to-face with the sun, we call it day time

When the earth’s rotation takes us away from the sun such that we no
longer see the sun light, we say it is night time. Therefore, the rotation of
the earth relative to the sun causes day and night. It takes 24 hours for
the earth to make one complete rotation and this is why we have 24 hours
a day.

Revolution of the Earth

In addition to the rotation (spinning) of the earth, it also moves round the
sun along a defined path called orbit.

This movement is called revolution of the earth.

Earth’s orbit

All the various types of movements exhibited by the earth relative to the
sun are caused by the gravitational force between the two bodies. These
movements are rotation, revolution.

And tilting (slanting) of the earth relative to the sun. It takes about 365
days (a year) for the earth to revolve round the sun once. While this
revolution is going on, the northern part of the earth (the Northern
hemisphere) is slanting towards the sun, bringing the Northern
hemisphere relatively closer to the sun and receiving more light and heat.

Conversely, and at the same time, the Southern hemisphere receives less
light and heat. These conditions are called seasons. Since different
countries are located at different parts of the earth (world), each country
has her own peculiar seasons. Nigeria has rainy and dry seasons. Europe
has spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons. These seasons are
essentially caused by the revolution of the earth round the sun.
The quantity of light and heat reaching the earth from the sun differs from
time to time and this brings about changes in temper temperature,
pressure, wind and humidity. These are called the weather.

The Moon

The advances made in astronomy (study of celestial bodies) came to a

great height in 1610 when Galileo used his own telescope to see spots on
the sun and craters on the moon.

The works of astronomers and rocket engineers have clearly shown us

that the moon:

(1)Is our closest neighbouring celestial object,

(2)It revolves (orbits) the earth once every 27.3 days,
(3)It is about 384,000 km (240,000 miles) away from the earth and
(4)It has a diameter of about 3,200 km (2,000 miles).

Brightness of the Moon

Astronomers and rocket engineers also made us know that the light
emanating from the moon at night does not originate from the moon
itself; rather the moonlight is only a reflection of the light it receives from
the sun. Two American astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, in 1969 landed
on the moon, using a spacecraft. They reported that when they looked at
the earth from the moon at night, they also saw the earth shining. This
shows that most things we observe in life depend on the position from
where we are taking the view.

Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon To ‘eclipse’ means to erershadow. For an
eclipse to occur there must be an obstacle standing between the source of
light and a body. So eclipse involves three entities, namely: source of light,
the obstacle and a body being eclipsed, and all three must stand on a
straight line.

Eclipse of the Sun

Eclipse of the sun means that an obstacle (the moon) is standing in the
way between the earth (light receiver) and the sun (source of light) as
shown below:
Eclipse of the Moon

Eclipse of the moon occurs when the earth stands in the way between the
moon and the sun.

Seasons of the Year

Seasons, like dry seasons, wet seasons, spring, summer, autumn and
winter occur as a result of changes in the position of the earth as it orbits
the sun.

Space Travel

The space beyond the planets is called outer space. It is almost an endless
continuum as it encompasses millions of suns, planets, moons, etc. Each
star when seen from earth looks tiny, but this is because it is located
millions of miles away from the earth. Each star is actually a sun and has
its own associated solar system. Stars occur in clusters called nebulae or
galaxies. Each galaxy contains so many millions of stars and the distance
between various stars and their solar systems is so large that the human
brain cannot imagine how expansive the universe is.

Benefits and Purpose of Space Travel

United States of America, Russia and China are in the forefront in space
travel. On 4th October, 1957, USSR was the first to launch the first
unmanned spaceship called Sputnik 1.

The purposes of space travel include:

(1)It provides information to forecast weather for agricultural purposes.

(2)It is used in information technologies like the internet, radio and
television.
(3)Certain scientific researches are better carried out in outer space to
reduce contamination.
(4)It provides information about impending tsunamis and even
earthquakes.
(5)It improves our general understanding of our larger environments.
Dangers of Space Travel

Space travel is fraught with dangers, principal among which are:

(1)The speed at which a spacecraft can overcome the earth’s gravity is

called escape velocity. It is difficult to attain escape velocity and in
some cases, the spacecraft may fail to lift beyond the earth’s
gravitational pull.
(2)It is inconvenient to carry all the foods, water, oxygen and other
conveniences required by the astronauts that will last for the
duration of their stay in outer space.
(3)It causes weightlessness and so the astronauts find it difficult to
walk or stand as they do on earth. They require special training
before embarking on the space travel in order to adapt.
(4)The spacecraft moves with very high speed, so the astronauts must
train to adapt to this.
(5)High precision and complicated mathematical calculations are
needed for the astronauts and their spaceships to land exactly on a
targeted planet. Sometimes these calculations may be wrong
resulting in missing the targeted destination.
(6)Since outer space is an endless vastness, a spacecraft and the
occupants may get completely lost. This explains why many space
travels are unmanned.

Satellites

A satellite is a body that orbits a planet. While a planet is a body that

orbits the sun, the earth has one satellite which is the moon, while
mercury has none. Man-made objects which orbit the earth are called
artificial satellites.

In August 23, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Nigerian Prime
Minister Tafawa Balewa conducted the first two-way phone call between
heads of states via satellite. This heralded the beginning of a new
telecommunication era. Today, Nigeria has a growing space programme of
its own, with five satellites orbiting the globe. Some of them are
NigeriaSAT X, Nigeria SAT 2, Nigeria SAT 1, and NIGCOMSAT-IR

Uses of Artificial Satellite Artificial satellites are used for

1. Politics (electoral processes)

2. Monitoring of natural disasters
3. Business
4. Scientific research
5. Military purposes
6. Communication
7. Weather forecast
8. Intelligence (reconnaissance).