With A Little Luck
By: Dennis Brindell Fradin
GRAVITY: a new way to think about the world.
Today in the year 1665 or 1666 a man by the name of Isaac Newton made a new discovery called gravity. The theory of gravity is that there is a force that pulls smaller objects to larger objects. He found this out when sitting outside in the orchard at his home in Woolsthrope and he noticed that an apple (the smaller object) fell towards the Earth (a much bigger object). This is also how the Earth is pulled to the sun and is kept in an orbit and not flung out of it into space. With a little bit of luck being in the right place at the right time Isaac Newton found out why the planets stay in orbit with the sun.
Could there be a new planet no one knew about? The search for planet X
Today in the year 1928 a man by the name of Clyde Tombaugh the age of 22 discovered a new ninth planet called Pluto at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Clyde used a nine-inch-diameter reflecting telescope. People use to think that there were only five planets -Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn that orbited our Earth. Today Clyde proved that there are actually 9!
An apple falling because of gravity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maki_s_brown_eyes/280521598/
The telescope used to find Pluto
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clyde_W._Tombaugh.jpeg
Pluto being seen through a telescope
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pluto-2009Oct16-12UT.jpg
Vocabulary
Gravity- the attraction due to gravitation that the Earth or another astronomical object exerts on an object on or near its surface.
Orbit- the path that an astronomical object such as a planet, moon, or satellite follows around a larger astronomical object such as the Sun.
Reflecting Telescope- a telescope in which light from the object is initially focused by a concave mirror.
Flung- to move forcefully.
Diameter- a line through the center of circle.