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where F is the gravitational force acting between two objects, m 1 and m 2 are the masses of the objects, r is the distance between the centers of their masses, and G is the gravitational constant. The first test of Newton's law of gravitation between masses in the laboratory was the Cavendish experiment conducted by the British scientist Henry ...
It is also known as the universal gravitational constant, the Newtonian constant of gravitation, or the Cavendish gravitational constant, [a] denoted by the capital letter G. In Newton's law, it is the proportionality constant connecting the gravitational force between two bodies with the product of their masses and the inverse square of their ...
The gravity of Earth, denoted by g, is the net acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the combined effect of gravitation (from mass distribution within Earth) and the centrifugal force (from the Earth's rotation). [2][3] It is a vector quantity, whose direction coincides with a plumb bob and strength or magnitude is given by the norm .
The first equation shows that, after one second, an object will have fallen a distance of 1/2 × 9.8 × 1 2 = 4.9 m. After two seconds it will have fallen 1/2 × 9.8 × 2 2 = 19.6 m; and so on. On the other hand, the penultimate equation becomes grossly inaccurate at great distances. If an object fell 10 000 m to Earth, then the results of both ...
However, gravity is the most significant interaction between objects at the macroscopic scale, and it determines the motion of planets, stars, galaxies, and even light. On Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects, and the Moon's gravity is responsible for sublunar tides in the oceans. The corresponding antipodal tide is caused by the ...
For two pairwise interacting point particles, the gravitational potential energy is the work done by the gravitational force in bringing the masses together: where is the displacement vector between the two particles and denotes the scalar product. Since the gravitational force is always parallel to the axis joining the particles, this ...
Experiment measuring the force of gravity (1797–1798) Cavendish's diagram of his torsion pendulum, seen from above. The pendulum consists of two small spherical lead weights (h, h) hanging from a 6-foot horizontal wooden beam supported in the center by a fine torsion wire. The beam is protected from air currents inside a wooden box (A, A, A, A).
A gravitational field is used to explain gravitational phenomena, such as the gravitational force field exerted on another massive body. It has dimension of acceleration (L/T 2) and it is measured in units of newtons per kilogram (N/kg) or, equivalently, in meters per second squared (m/s 2). In its original concept, gravity was a force between ...