What is Gravity?
We are familiar with gravity as the reason objects fall.
But what is gravity?
Sir Isaac Newton described gravity as an attractive force between all objects with mass.
He described gravity as a “ mysterious action at a distance”
Einstein described gravity as the bending of space and time.
The reality is that gravity keeps us from falling off the earth and it is what keeps the earth in orbit around the sun and it is what caused the sun, planets, and moon to form.
Every object with mass attracts every other object with mass, which means your dog, the moon, and a huge star are all attracted to you and you to them.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered that the gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of the mass of the objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects.
In simple terms, the law of Universal Gravitation states,
All objects in the universe attract each other through gravitational force.
The law depends on mass and distance
As the distance between two objects gets larger, the force of gravity gets much smaller.
According to Einstein, the larger the mass of the object the greater the curvature of space and time, and the greater the attraction between objects. The closer objects are to one another the greater the attraction and the further away from one another the less the attraction because the curvature of space and time has less of the impact.
The reality of Einstein’s view and Newton’s view is that gravity depends on mass and distance.
This is why we feel the force of the earth, but not the force of the moon which is both smaller and farther away than the Earth.
However, the Earth is attracted to the moon. Evidence of this is tidal bulges.
Related Links
0 comments:
Post a Comment