Gravity, mass, weight, force, energy

Earth, Moon, Sun and Stars

Lisa Wright, University of Cambridge

The material linked to this webpage provides a great opportunity for students to find out about the sun, moon and earth, stars, light and gravity. There is experimental work to do, plus mathematical modelling and calculation.

Project Work

A preliminary exercise, making a model of the solar system.

What colours is ordinary white light made up of? Why do astronomers use different coloured lights to look deep into the universe?

Find out how Galileo discovered about how fast different objects fall to the ground, and try his experiments out for yourselves.

Why do we have night and day, or summer and winter (and no, it's not because the sun is further away in winter!). What are lunar eclipses?

Why is the moon sometimes big and round, and other times thin and crescent-shaped? Why can't we see it at all sometimes?

What are pulsars? Do an experiment to find out about them!

Addition Material

Other useful websites.

Answers and extra help for the problems set in the project on Galileo's experiments.

Details of the calculation of angular momentum.