Physics: Gravity

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Gravity In physics, gravity (from Latin gravitas 'weight'), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, which may be described as the force that draws material objects towards each other.

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Gravity In physics, gravity (from Latin gravi tas 'weight'), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, which may be described as the force that draws material objects towards each other.

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What is Gravity, and why does it matter? This concept appears everywhere in physics. Once you understand it, a wide range of natural phenomena start to make sense.

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Deep dive: Gravity In physics, gravity (from Latin gravitas 'weight'), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, which may be described as the force that draws material objects towards each other. The gravitational attraction between clouds of primordial hydrogen and clumps of dark matter in the early universe caused the hydrogen gas to coalesce, eventually condensing and fusing to form stars. At larger scales this resulted in galaxies and clusters, so gravity is a primary driver for the large-scale structures in the universe. Gravity has an infinite range, although its effects become weaker as objects get farther away. Gravity is described by the general theory of relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, which describes gravity in terms of the curvature of spacetime, caused by the uneven distribution of mass. The most extreme example of this curvature of spacetime is a black hole, from which nothing—not even light—can escape once past the black hole's event horizon. However, for most applications, gravity is sufficiently well approximated by Newton's law of universal gravitation, which describes gravity as an attractive force between any two bodies that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Scientists are looking for a theory that describes gravity in the framework of quantum mechanics (quantum gravity), which would unify gravity and the other known fundamental interactions of physics in a single mathematical framework (a theory of everything). On the surface of a planetary body such as on Earth, the force of gravity operates towards the center of the body and is modified by the centrifugal effects arising from the rotation of the body. In this context, gravity gives weight to physical objects and is essential to understanding the mechanisms that are responsible for surface water waves, lunar tides and substantially contributes to weather patterns. Gravitational weight also has many important biological functions, helping to guide the growth of plants through the process of gravitropism and influencing the circulation of fluids in multicellular organisms.