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Near Earth's surface, the acceleration due to gravity, accurate to 2 significant figures, is 9.8 m/s 2 (32 ft/s 2). This means that, ignoring the effects of air resistance , the speed of an object falling freely will increase by about 9.8 metres per second (32 ft/s) every second.
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.
The Schiehallion experiment, proposed in 1772 and completed in 1776, was the first successful measurement of the mean density of the Earth, and thus indirectly of the gravitational constant. The result reported by Charles Hutton (1778) suggested a density of 4.5 g/cm 3 (4 + 1 / 2 times the density of water), about 20% below the modern ...
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 ...
A common misconception occurs between centre of mass and centre of gravity.They are defined in similar ways but are not exactly the same quantity. Centre of mass is the mathematical description of placing all the mass in the region considered to one position, centre of gravity is a real physical quantity, the point of a body where the gravitational force acts.
For two bodies, the parameter may be expressed as G(m 1 + m 2), or as GM when one body is much larger than the other: = (+). For several objects in the Solar System, the value of μ is known to greater accuracy than either G or M. The SI unit of the standard gravitational parameter is m 3 ⋅s −2.
After converting to SI units, Cavendish's value for the Earth's density, 5.448 g cm −3, gives G = 6.74 × 10 −11 m 3 kg –1 s −2, [24] which differs by only 1% from the 2014 CODATA value of 6.67408 × 10 −11 m 3 kg −1 s −2. [25] Today, physicists often use units where the gravitational constant takes a different form.
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.