Let's say I take a piece of paper and place it in the middle of the universe, stationary. Everything else is smaller than this piece of paper. Would the paper exert gravity on the smaller objects? If so, how small would the objects have to be, or how big would the piece of paper have to be to have them rotate around the paper? Does an object have to be a specific shape to exert gravity or rotate a certain speed? This is an honest question.
2007-11-16 01:40:45 · 12 answers · asked by tcjstn 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I see what you all are saying. So if the paper has an umeasureable pull of gravity...the objects that are smaller would have to be significantly smaller than the paper. Sounds as if they would have to be nearly weightless. Hmmm...got me thinkin!
Thanks for the great answers.
2007-11-16 01:49:57 · update #1
Great question!
Everything that has mass exerts a gravitational effect, even a piece of paper. It doesn't matter what shape its in, it just has to have mass.
The gravitational force is so weak though that you need a very, very large mass to feel it at all.
If you hung two bowling balls from cords so that they were right next to each other but a little bit apart, they would exert gravitational effects on each other. But, the gravity of the earth acting on each bowling ball, wind resistance, friction in the cord, etc would all be so much larger than the gravitational attraction force between the bowling balls that you'd never be able to measure it.
Very carefully controlled experiments, done in space, away from earth's gravity would need to be done to see such an effect.
Check out this web site for the equation to calculate gravitational force.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/GravitationalForce.html
You can do a google search on 'gravitational force' to learn more..
Hope this helps,
-Guru
2007-11-16 01:50:51 · answer #1 · answered by Guru 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Every objects exerts the pull of gravity. It's a fundamental property of matter. However, an object that small will exert only a tiny, probably unmeasurable pull. After all, the entire earth, which weighs 5.97 ** 24 kilos, only exerts probably less than 200 lbs of pull on you. A piece of paper, which weighs what - a gram, maybe 2? - will not have much gravity. But it does have some!
To be honest, any piece of test equipment you might use to measure the pull would overcome the gravity of the paper, and attract the paper to it more than the paper attracts anything near it.
2007-11-16 01:47:27 · answer #2 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Size of the object, rotation, and shape do not play a big role in exerting gravity. Specific mass on the other hand directly contributes to the amount of gravity that object exerts.
Depending on how far away the satellite objects are will determine how much gravity will be needed to draw them close. Without some form of rotation, then all objects drawn near will eventually collide with your main object. Thus rotation would need to be implemented, and the centripetal force that would normally toss an object away, would counteract the effects of gravity, causing your satellite objects to orbit.
I hope I explained it clear enough.
2007-11-16 01:59:03 · answer #3 · answered by theCATALYST 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Objects dont exert gravity . they are rather the victims of gravity.
When you deal with a small piece of paper and it seems to be attracted to a piece of would its still the result of a gravity phenomena. Its called electrostatic.
2007-11-16 01:59:44 · answer #4 · answered by goring 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No matter how big or how small, the law of gravity scale up or down.
If you have a piece of paper in the middle of nowhere, small dust would be able to gravitate around.
2007-11-16 02:00:40 · answer #5 · answered by JLB 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Why massive products entice small ? Is it how earth gravitation works ?" All products with mass entice one yet another and in case you conceptually wreck them off into pairs, then the gravitational tension between any 2 hundreds is precisely a similar the two way. A penny attracts the earth with a similar tension than the earth attracts the penny. the reason it appears that evidently that huge products merely entice small products and that small products do no longer seem to reciprocate is merely through the two products having a centre of mass it particularly is indistinguishable in guidance from the centre of mass of the plenty greater merchandise. Centre of mass may well be considered the factor of lowest gravitational potential that each and every person mass interior the "equipment" decrease than question can tend to bypass in the direction of. while the two hundreds are plenty closer in length (eg the earth-moon equipment) then the centre of mass is measurably distant from the centre of the bigger merchandise). The centre of mass of the earth-moon equipment lies someplace interior the earths mantle (nevertheless of course the particular factor strikes through rotation, however the intensity of it particularly is someplace approximately there each and every of the time) IIRC.
2016-10-02 11:55:20 · answer #6 · answered by huitt 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The strength of gravity, as measured by the universal gravitational constant, was first determined by measuring the gravitational attraction attraction of lead balls a few inches apart that weighed a few pounds. It involved and extremely sensitive torsion wire balance.
2007-11-16 08:46:02 · answer #7 · answered by Dr. R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ALL objects exert gravity. Small objects exert a small amount, and large objects exert a large amount.
2007-11-16 01:44:32 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
ALL mass ,no matter how small, exerts a gravitational effect on ALL other masses.
2007-11-16 01:46:20 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
For gravity mass matters and not the size.
one cc of gold would exert more gravity than one cc of common rock like granite or sandstone etc.
thnks
2007-11-16 01:45:56 · answer #10 · answered by mandira_nk 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋