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Grav Itation: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Gravitation is the natural phenomenon where physical bodies attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It is most commonly experienced as the force that gives weight to objects and causes them to fall toward Earth. Modern physics describes gravitation through Einstein's general theory of relativity, which suggests that spacetime is curved by mass and energy. Gravitation is responsible for many phenomena observed on Earth and throughout the universe, such as keeping planets in orbit around the Sun and causing tides.

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41 views3 pages

Grav Itation: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Gravitation is the natural phenomenon where physical bodies attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It is most commonly experienced as the force that gives weight to objects and causes them to fall toward Earth. Modern physics describes gravitation through Einstein's general theory of relativity, which suggests that spacetime is curved by mass and energy. Gravitation is responsible for many phenomena observed on Earth and throughout the universe, such as keeping planets in orbit around the Sun and causing tides.

Uploaded by

Jennifer Jenkins
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http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/GravitationGrav
itation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the natural phenomenon. For other uses, see Gravitation (disambiguation). "Gravity" redirects here. For other uses, see Gravity (disambiguation). "Law of Gravity" and "Laws of Gravity" redirect here. For other uses, see Law of Gravity (disambiguation).

Hammer and Feather Drop - Apollo 15astronaut David Scott on the Moon recreating Galileo's famous gravity experiment. (1.38 MB, ogg/Theora format).
Gravitation, or gravity, is the natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract each other with a force proportional to theirmasses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It is most commonly experienced as the agent that givesweight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped. The phenomenon of gravitation itself, however, is a byproduct of a more fundamental phenomenon described by general relativity, which suggests that spacetime is curved according to theenergy and momentum of whatever matter and radiation are present. Gravitation is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature, along with electromagnetism, and the nuclear strong force and weak force. In modern physics, the phenomenon of gravitation is most accurately described by the general theory of relativity by Einstein, in which the phenomenon itself is a consequence of the curvature of spacetime governing the motion of inertial objects. The simplerNewton's law of universal gravitation provides an accurate approximation for most physical situations including calculations as critical as spacecraft trajectory. From a cosmological perspective, gravitation causes dispersed matter to coalesce, and coalesced matter to remain intact, thus accounting for the existence of planets, stars, galaxies and most of the macroscopic objects in the universe. It is responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in their orbits around the Sun; for keeping the Moon in its orbit around the Earth; for the formation oftides; for natural convection, by which fluid flow occurs under the influence of a density

gradient and gravity; for heating the interiors of forming stars and planets to very high temperatures; and for various other phenomena observed on Earth and throughout the universe.

Contents
[hide]

1 History of gravitational theory


o o o o o

1.1 Scientific revolution 1.2 Newton's theory of gravitation 1.3 Equivalence principle 1.4 General relativity 1.5 Gravity and quantum mechanics

2 Specifics
o o o o o

2.1 Earth's gravity 2.2 Equations for a falling body near the surface of the Earth 2.3 Gravity and astronomy 2.4 Gravitational radiation 2.5 Speed of gravity

3 Anomalies and discrepancies 4 Alternative theories


o o

4.1 Historical alternative theories 4.2 Recent alternative theories

5 See also 6 Notes 7 Footnotes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

History of gravitational theory


Main article: History of gravitational theory

Classical mechanics

History

Timeline

Branches[show]

Formulations[show] Fundamental concepts[show] Core topics[show] Rotational motion[show] Scientists[show]



V

Scientific revolution
Modern work on gravitational theory began with the work of Galileo Galilei in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In his famous (though possibly apocryphal[1]) experiment dropping balls from the Tower of Pisa, and later with careful measurements of balls rolling down inclines, Galileo showed that gravitation accelerates all objects at the same rate. This was a major departure from Aristotle's belief that heavier objects accelerate faster.[2] Galileo correctly postulated air resistance as the reason that lighter objects may fall slower in an atmosphere. Galileo's work set the stage for the formulation of Newton's theory of gravity.

Newton's theory of gravitation

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