Gravity | Definition, Physics, & Facts | Britannica
Dec 21, 2024 · Gravity is measured by the acceleration that it gives to freely falling objects. At Earth ’s surface the acceleration of gravity is about 9.8 meters (32 feet) per second per second. Thus, for every second an object is in free fall, its speed increases by …
Gravity - Acceleration, Earth, Moon | Britannica
Dec 21, 2024 · Gravity - Acceleration, Earth, Moon: The value of the attraction of gravity or of the potential is determined by the distribution of matter within Earth or some other celestial body. In turn, as seen above, the distribution of matter determines the shape of the surface on which the potential is constant.
Newton’s law of gravity - Encyclopedia Britannica
Dec 21, 2024 · Since a body of mass M experiencing a force F accelerates at a rate F/M, a force of gravity proportional to M would be consistent with Galileo’s observation that all bodies accelerate under gravity toward Earth at the same rate, a …
Newton’s law of gravitation | Definition, Formula, & Facts | Britannica
Dec 17, 2024 · planetary orbits: Kepler, Newton, and gravity Brian Greene demonstrates how Newton's law of gravitation determines the trajectories of the planets and explains the patterns in their motion found by Kepler.
Gravity - Force, Physics, Theory | Britannica
Dec 21, 2024 · The acceleration A of a moving particle of negligible mass that interacts with a mass M, which is at rest, is given in the following formula, derived from Einstein’s gravitational theory. The expression for A now has, as well as the Newtonian expression from equation ( 1 ), further terms in higher powers of G M /R 2 —that is, in G 2 M 2 /R 4 .
Gravitation | physical process | Britannica
…where it is largest, the gravitational acceleration g is about 0.5 percent smaller than at the poles, where there is no centrifugal force. This same centrifugal force is responsible for the fact that Earth is slightly nonspherical, bulging just a bit at the Equator.
Gravitational constant | Definition, Value, Units, & Facts | Britannica
Gravitational constant, physical constant denoted by G and used in calculating the gravitational attraction between two objects, which is equal to G times the product of the masses of the two objects divided by the square of the distance between them.
Equivalence principle | Gravitational, Acceleration & Time Dilation ...
Equivalence principle, fundamental law of physics that states that gravitational and inertial forces are of a similar nature and often indistinguishable. In the Newtonian form it asserts, in effect, that, within a windowless laboratory freely falling in a uniform gravitational field, experimenters
gravity - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help
Galileo found that gravity imposes a constant acceleration on all objects regardless of mass. That is, no matter how large or small an object is, it will fall at the same rate of acceleration. On Earth this acceleration is 32 feet (9.75 meters) per second per second.
Development of gravitational theory | Britannica
Isaac Newton was the first to develop a quantitative theory of gravity, holding that the force of attraction between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.