Does the mass of an object affect gravitational pull?

Question

I don't know if the question was worded correctly or not. I was thinking about the Sun and it's gravitational pull on the Earth. Isn't the earth heavier now than it was 1000 years ago? We have added tons and tons of weight to it with all that has been constructed over the last 1000 years. Shouldn't the added weight have changed the suns ability to keep us within the same gravitational orbit?
If it doesn't change it then how come if I use my shopvac as an example of the suns gravitational pull I can only pick up objects of a certain weight within a certain area, but if I added a little more weight or took away a little weight to any of the objects it changes what gets sucked up and what gets left behind.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The Formula for calculating gravitational pull is F= GMm/r^2.
The G is the gravitational constant 6.67x10^-11 Sun's mass is around 10^30 kg and earth 10^24 kg. So if we add a bunch a buildings we don't even come close to adding a significant digit. Look at your orders of magnitude...

Answer 2

The mass of an object does affect the gravitational force. However, that same mass provides inertia to resist that force, so two objects of different masses would orbit the sun in exactly the same trajectory (provided the two objects started out the same distance away with the same velocity). If you drop a bowling ball and a marble, they'll fall at the same rate in spite of the bowling ball being heavier. The mass cancels out when it comes to turning gravitational force into motion.

The amount of construction on Earth hasn't changed the Earth's mass in the least bit. Where did the material to construct all of those buildings come from? All of the material came from the Earth. It was part of the Earth's mass before it became a building and it's still part of the Earth's mass after it became a building.

Answer 3

You need to be careful when u discuss gravity because you are never far from leaping into a detailed discussion concerning relativity :(

The "shopvac" (which im assuming to be a vacuum cleaner, im from UK and never heard of such a thing) example isnt really correct because your making large changes to the objects being sucked up.

Remember that the earth is totally insignificant compared to the sun, the sun produces solar flares that would consume the earth 100x over. So as the forumla previosuly stated shows the dominant term in the equation is easily the mass of the sun is easily the dominant term.

And as for gravitons, simply we have no idea as to how gravity is produced and have found no evidence of the force carrying particle for gravity.

So yes mass of an object will affect gravitional pull, but gravity involves two bodies and one mass term can lead to the second term changed being negligble

Answer 4

The only weight added to the Earth since it was created has been what is proportional to the amount of energy the sun has provided the earth since the earth was created.

The reason your shopvac sucks up more depending on how much weight you add or subtract is probably b/c the pull of the shopvac on the objects is not proportional to the pull of the sun on the earth. your ratio of pull to object weight is probably greater then the ratio of suns gravity to earths weight. And the reason you can take weight off and then move the object is probably b/c the % of weight you are taking on or off the object is greater then the % of weight the sun has added to the earth.

Also remember there is probably friction involved in your setup which is not consistent with space. Your model can not be used to accuratly display the delicate balance between the planets and the sun.

Answer 5

Greater The Mass Greater Is the Gravitational pull. But wait the Earth Is Certainly Not Getting Heavier, any More Than Angela Merkel Is getting Thinner

Answer 6

Whoa lots of questions!

Firstly, you have to consider that everything that has been constructed over many years has been built from raw materials. So these raw materials have merely been transferred from one state to another. This means that their weight has not changed.

Secondly, this possible 'change' in mass is relatively insignificant when you consider the mass of the earth.

Going back to your original point. Yes the mass of an object does have an effect on gravitational pull. If you consider a large ship about to dock. When it gets close to the harbor, the ship will pull itself to the dock in the last few inches. This is because the mass of the ship is relatively large and friction is virtually zero.

Regarding, what I presume to be a vacuum cleaner, sorry but this has no relevance on this issue. I'm only English, so please make allowances.

Answer 7

no individual is bound of the clarification behind the stress of gravity, notwithstanding it type of feels maximum kinds of debris of remember which have relax mass own the charm for different debris. on the centers of large bodies there ought to not be a information superhighway charm in any route, because the pull is uniformly disbursed all round. notwithstanding the finished body ought to nevertheless be difficulty to pull from different bodies outdoors it. As this pull decreases with sq. of the gap, it in no way extremely is going to 0. yet at astronomical distances for small gadgets, the stress should be so low that it turns right into a null aspect, and can't be felt. for much higher thousands, like our galaxy and others in our cluster of galaxies, there's a action in the route of "the excellent attractor". So even over thousands and thousands of sunshine years distances, gravity nevertheless works. there is not an section in the commonly used universe that has 0 gravity.

Answer 8

as far as i know the only weight that's been added to the earth's mass is the that of asteroids. all the construction was with materials thats been part of the earth's mass forever. this added mass (from asteroids)should probably affect the gravitational pull, but not significantly.

Answer 9

As much as we have built here on Earth, I don't think we have imported the material from the Moon or other planets, so the Earth still weighs the same. And your second question about the shop vac????? Gravity and suction are not the same force.

Answer 10

According to theory, the reason mass is proportional to gravity is because everything with mass emits tiny particles called gravitons. These gravitons are responsible for gravitational attraction. The more mass, the more gravitons.