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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.
Newton's law of gravitation resembles Coulomb's law of electrical forces, which is used to calculate the magnitude of the electrical force arising between two charged bodies. Both are inverse-square laws, where force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the bodies. Coulomb's law has charge in place of mass and a ...
The pound-force has a metric counterpart, less commonly used than the newton: the kilogram-force (kgf) (sometimes kilopond), is the force exerted by standard gravity on one kilogram of mass. The kilogram-force leads to an alternate, but rarely used unit of mass: the metric slug (sometimes mug or hyl) is that mass that accelerates at 1 m·s −2 ...
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).
The pound-force is equal to the gravitational force exerted on a mass of one avoirdupois pound on the surface of Earth.Since the 18th century, the unit has been used in low-precision measurements, for which small changes in Earth's gravity (which varies from equator to pole by up to half a percent) can safely be neglected.
One g is the force per unit mass due to gravity at the Earth's surface and is the standard gravity (symbol: g n), defined as 9.806 65 metres per second squared, [5] or equivalently 9.806 65 newtons of force per kilogram of mass. The unit definition does not vary with location—the g-force when standing on the Moon is almost exactly 1 ⁄ 6 that
This is because the gravitational force is an extremely weak force as compared to other fundamental forces at the laboratory scale. [d] In SI units, the CODATA-recommended value of the gravitational constant is: [1] = 6.674 30 (15) × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2. The relative standard uncertainty is 2.2 × 10 −5.
In its original concept, gravity was a force between point masses. Following Isaac Newton, Pierre-Simon Laplace attempted to model gravity as some kind of radiation field or fluid, [citation needed] and since the 19th century, explanations for gravity in classical mechanics have usually been taught in terms of a field model, rather than a point ...