We know what gravity is and how to measure it and study it BUT do we know how it really works?

Question

To Meg: Whats the model for how gravity works?

Answer 1

There are several models how gravity might work. Einstein, for example, presumed that mass bends space and that the greater the mass, the greater the subsequent warping of space around that body. Think of it as a rubber sheet with a bowling ball in the center (the earth). We put a BB on the outside of the sheet and it rolls down the rubber to the bowling ball... that would be an example of how mass bending space could cause reaction in the form of gravity (a 2 dimensional model).

The current model, based on quantum mechanics, supposes the existance of gravitons which would interact with mass and cause them to attract. Personally, i think this is carrying quantum science just a LITTLE too far, but hey, if people want to buy that you're falling to the earth because you just got hit by millions of little gravity packets, sure.

The truth of the matter is that no one knows for sure how gravity works and there are lots of different theories.

Answer 2

We know that the force of gravity depends upon the presence of objects with mass and varies with the distance between the masses.
F = Gm(M)/r^2
Why does gravity exist? Why are objects with mass attracted to each other? Why does the force of attraction get larger as the objects get closer together? What is missing from our understanding and possibly buried in the universal constant for gravity, G?
These are questions to be answered still. They may be physical and/or metaphysical.

Answer 3

NO. For the most part physics doesn't know how anything really works. We have models that predicts how things will behave and allow complex calculations, but our models are not reality.

Answer 4

Course we do . Newton worked it out 400 years ago

Answer 5

Sure, its simple.

The Earth Sucks.