The Newtonian gravity and some of its classical tests

Abstract

In this chapter, the historical evolution of the concept of gravitation, with its connections to the observations of natural phenomena and to the related experiments, is presented. It starts with a brief description of the first stage of the experiments and continues giving details on the work related to it. The smallness of the gravitational effects to be detected, along with the spurious effects (presence of Earth’s gravity and environmental noise) that make the measurement difficult and the techniques most suitable for their detection are shown. In the last part of this chapter, some gravitational experiments performed in space and on ground are described.