2007-02-24 05:13:34 · 8 answers · asked by steve r 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Think about a cloth having grids of lines printed across it. and u put a ball on it. the centre of the cloth will be depressed by the weight of the ball and the grid lines will appear to be curved. The heavier the ball, steeper will be the curvature of grid lines. This curvature is nothing but gravity of that ball with respect to the cloth. Gravity is a property by virtue of its "mass", the space-time continum is curved around it. The curvature of this curve is called gravity. If u put a lighter ball on the cloth, u'll find it is moving towards the heavier ball at the centre. Higher the mass of the center ball steeper 'll be the curve and the lighter ball will move faster towards it (means the body at center has higher gravity!). If u move away from the centre then the curves will be flat so gravity is not felt in space.
2007-02-27 02:26:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Masses attract each other, like 2 magnets attract. The larger the mass, the more attraction it has for other masses. This means that larger masses have stronger gravity than smaller masses, so something on the surface of the larger mass will weigh more than the same object on the smaller mass. This is why you would weigh more on Earth than on the Moon.
The amount of attraction is measured from the center of gravity of the mass. For a planet or moon, this means basically from the center of the planet. So it's the distance of the radius of the planet.
The strength of the mass is directly proportional to the invers of the square of the distance. As you move away from the mass, its gravitational pull on you decreases. The inverse square thing means that if you weigh 100 kg. on the surface, at a distance 2 radius (when you're twice as far away from the center of the planet), you'd weigh only 100 kg times 1/4 radiuses - or 100 x 1/2 = 50 kg. At 3 radii away from the center, you'd weigh 1/9 of the original weight.
If you want to know why mass has the property of gravity, you're asking about a fundamental basic quality of mass that even the best theoretical physicists don't understand fully.
2007-02-24 13:24:37 · answer #2 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gravity is the result of deformation in the fabric of space and time as a result of an object's mass. Think of space time as a trampoline. If you place a massive object (like a bowling ball) on the trampoline, the trampoline gets a dent . If you were to take a golf ball and roll it across the trampoline, the path of the golf ball would be changed as a result of that dent. The golf ball "falls" towards the bowling ball. That is how Einstein described gravity.
2007-02-24 13:24:03 · answer #3 · answered by thom1102 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
gravity is an attraction of objects. we like to think of gravity only as a planets pull, when actually this force is felt between any two objects. the earth is a massive object in comparison to anything else on the planet, is it has a greater pull. but even smaller things have this force between them. two tennis balls in close proximity have a pull to one another. so why don't the tennis balls pull toward one another? because they are relatively small in comparison to the earth and that prevents them from moving toward each other. but if we took those two balls into space, they would drift slowly toward each other. I don't remember the equation, but it involves the mass of each object and the distance between them. This means that the bigger and closer two objects are, the greater the "gravity" between them.
2007-02-24 13:27:10 · answer #4 · answered by louis504842 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
gravity in its simplist terms is the attraction of two masses, the larger the masses the larger the force of attraction (gravity) everything is attracted to everything else, its just the closeness and size of mass which determines which is stronger. on earth out closest large body is the earth so we are all attracted to it (pulled towards its centre of mass - the centre of the earth) the moon and sun also have thier effects and that is why we have tides as the sun and moon attract the water in the oceans and gives us varying water levels which we call the tides
2007-02-24 13:27:53 · answer #5 · answered by Kev P 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gravity is a collapsing energy field that collapses to the very center of the Earth, AKA "Attraction to a common center."
It is Atomically initiated, by one of the particles (Neutron) that make up, basically, all atoms other then Hydrogen.
Read up on "Zero Point energy" as it is analogeous to that.
2007-02-24 16:03:43 · answer #6 · answered by occluderx 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earth is a spinning ball of mass. Because of the spin, and the largness of the mass any smaller mass will be pulled into first an orbit around it, then into the mass itself. Even the moon is slowly falling at about an inch a year. Gravity is the pull smaller objects feel from larger spinning ones.
2007-02-24 13:21:51 · answer #7 · answered by anamaradancer 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Ah the ubiquitous 'imagine space-time is a trampoline, and the earth is a bowling ball' analogy, how novel.
2007-02-24 13:34:51 · answer #8 · answered by Mr Poo 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋