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Gravitational time dilation is a form of time dilation, an actual difference of elapsed time between two events, as measured by observers situated at varying distances from a gravitating mass. The lower the gravitational potential (the closer the clock is to the source of gravitation), the slower time passes, speeding up as the gravitational ...
The free-fall time is the characteristic time that would take a body to collapse under its own gravitational attraction, if no other forces existed to oppose the collapse.. As such, it plays a fundamental role in setting the timescale for a wide variety of astrophysical processes—from star formation to helioseismology to supernovae—in which gravity plays a dominant ro
Derivation of Newton's law of gravity Newtonian gravitation can be written as the theory of a scalar field, Φ , which is the gravitational potential in joules per kilogram of the gravitational field g = −∇Φ , see Gauss's law for gravity ∇ 2 Φ ( x → , t ) = 4 π G ρ ( x → , t ) {\displaystyle \nabla ^{2}\Phi \left({\vec {x}},t ...
This suggests the definition of a new class of inertial motion, namely that of objects in free fall under the influence of gravity. This new class of preferred motions, too, defines a geometry of space and time—in mathematical terms, it is the geodesic motion associated with a specific connection which depends on the gradient of the ...
By definition, an affine connection is a bilinear map () (), where () is a space of all vector fields on the spacetime. This bilinear map can be described in terms of a set of connection coefficients (also known as Christoffel symbols ) specifying what happens to components of basis vectors under infinitesimal parallel transport: ∇ e i e j ...
But in a relativistic theory of gravity, mass cannot be the only source of gravity. Relativity links mass with energy, and energy with momentum. The equivalence between mass and energy, as expressed by the formula E = mc 2, is the most famous consequence of special relativity. In relativity, mass and energy are two different ways of describing ...
Gravity is usually measured in units of acceleration.In the SI system of units, the standard unit of acceleration is metres per second squared (m/s 2).Other units include the cgs gal (sometimes known as a galileo, in either case with symbol Gal), which equals 1 centimetre per second squared, and the g (g n), equal to 9.80665 m/s 2.
The equivalence principle is the hypothesis that the observed equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass is a consequence of nature. The weak form, known for centuries, relates to masses of any composition in free fall taking the same trajectories and landing at identical times.