Letter to the Editor

Testing the Newton second law in the regime of small accelerations

¹ Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Av. BPS 1303 Pinheirinho, 37500-903 Itajubá, MG, Brazil e-mail: [delorenci;jonasp]@unifei.edu.br
² PH Department, TH Unit, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
³ Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Rua Estados Unidos 154, Bairro das Nações, 37504-364 Itajubá, MG, Brazil e-mail: max@lna.br

Received: 12 December 2008
Accepted: 16 May 2009

Abstract

It has been pointed out that the Newtonian second law can be tested in the very small acceleration regime by using the combined movement of the Earth and Sun around the Galactic center of mass. It has been shown that there are only two brief intervals during the year in which the experiment can be completed, which correspond to only two specific spots on the Earth surface. An alternative experimental setup is presented to allow the measurement to be made on Earth at any location and at any time.