Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Some of the tests of the equivalence principle use names for the different ways mass appears in physical formulae. In nonrelativistic physics three kinds of mass can be distinguished: [14] Inertial mass intrinsic to an object, the sum of all of its mass–energy. Passive mass, the response to gravity, the object's weight.
The portion of the mass that is located at radii r < r 0 causes the same force at the radius r 0 as if all of the mass enclosed within a sphere of radius r 0 was concentrated at the center of the mass distribution (as noted above). The portion of the mass that is located at radii r > r 0 exerts no net gravitational force at the radius r 0 from
In Newtonian gravity, the source is mass. In special relativity, mass turns out to be part of a more general quantity called the energy–momentum tensor, which includes both energy and momentum densities as well as stress: pressure and shear. [40] Using the equivalence principle, this tensor is readily generalized to curved spacetime.
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 ...
According to general relativity, mass distorts spacetime and gravity is a natural consequence of Newton's First Law. Mass tells spacetime how to bend, and spacetime tells mass how to move. In general relativity gravitational energy is extremely complex, and there is no single agreed upon definition of the concept.
In physics, gravity (from Latin gravitas 'weight' [1]) is a fundamental interaction primarily observed as mutual attraction between all things that have mass.Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 10 38 times weaker than the strong interaction, 10 36 times weaker than the electromagnetic force and 10 29 times weaker than the weak interaction.
A unique feature of the gravitational force is that all massive objects accelerate in the same manner in a gravitational field. This is often expressed as "The gravitational mass is equal to the inertial mass." This allows us to think of gravity as a curvature of spacetime. [citation needed]
The gravitational constant G is a key quantity in Newton's law of universal gravitation.. The gravitational constant is an empirical physical constant involved in the calculation of gravitational effects in Sir Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation and in Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.