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[1] [2] The acceleration of a body near the surface of the Earth is due to the combined effects of gravity and centrifugal acceleration from the rotation of the Earth (but the latter is small enough to be negligible for most purposes); the total (the apparent gravity) is about 0.5% greater at the poles than at the Equator. [3] [4]
The gravity g′ at depth d is given by g′ = g(1 − d/R) where g is acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Earth, d is depth and R is the radius of the Earth. If the density decreased linearly with increasing radius from a density ρ 0 at the center to ρ 1 at the surface, then ρ(r) = ρ 0 − (ρ 0 − ρ 1) r / R, and the ...
The g-force acting on an object under acceleration can be much greater than 1 g, for example, the dragster pictured at top right can exert a horizontal g-force of 5.3 when accelerating. The g-force acting on an object under acceleration may be downwards, for example when cresting a sharp hill on a roller coaster.
If one mass is much larger than the other, it is convenient to take it as observational reference and define it as source of a gravitational field of magnitude and orientation given by: [5] g = − G M r 2 r ^ {\displaystyle \mathbf {g} =-{GM \over r^{2}}\mathbf {\hat {r}} }
Assuming SI units, F is measured in newtons (N), m 1 and m 2 in kilograms (kg), r in meters (m), and the constant G is 6.674 30 (15) × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2. [12] The value of the constant G was first accurately determined from the results of the Cavendish experiment conducted by the British scientist Henry Cavendish in 1798 ...
Determined in this way, the gravitational field g around a single particle of mass M is a vector field consisting at every point of a vector pointing directly towards the particle. The magnitude of the field at every point is calculated by applying the universal law, and represents the force per unit mass on any object at that point in space.
The gravitational constant appears in the Einstein field equations of general relativity, [4] [5] + =, where G μν is the Einstein tensor (not the gravitational constant despite the use of G), Λ is the cosmological constant, g μν is the metric tensor, T μν is the stress–energy tensor, and κ is the Einstein gravitational constant, a ...
The product GM is the standard gravitational parameter and is often known to higher precision than G or M separately. The potential has units of energy per mass, e.g., J/kg in the MKS system. By convention, it is always negative where it is defined, and as x tends to infinity, it approaches zero.