CHAPTER 3
Gravity
No one questions the existence of gravity in everyday life. When we put something on a table (astronauts excepted), typically we expect it to stay there. Gravity is mathematically a little subtle, though, and in this chapter we look at the gravity field around the Earth and Moon, as well as that inside the triple star system that we see as the star Algol.
We also look at how moons or comets speed up or slow down in their orbits, as Johannes Kepler figured out between about 1605 and 1618. Then about 40 years later, Newton developed calculus to be able to better calculate planetary orbits. You will not need any calculus to understand ...
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