Gravitation | physical process | Britannica (original) (raw)
Learn about this topic in these articles:
Assorted References
physical principles
In principles of physical science: Law of gravitation …accelerate equally implies that the gravitational force causing acceleration bears a constant relation to the inertial mass. According to Newton’s postulated law of gravitation, two bodies of mass _m_1 and _m_2, separated by a distance r, exert equal attractive forces on each other (the equal action and reaction of the… Read More
In principles of physical science: Gauss’s theorem …takes the same form in gravitational theory, the flux of gravitational field lines through a closed surface being determined by the total mass within. This enables a proof to be given immediately of a problem that caused Newton considerable trouble. He was able to show, by direct summation over all… Read More
In physics: The study of gravitation This field of inquiry has in the past been placed within classical mechanics for historical reasons, because both fields were brought to a high state of perfection by Newton and also because of its universal character. Newton’s gravitational law states that every material particle… Read More
relativistic mechanics
In relativistic mechanics As long as gravitational effects can be ignored, which is true so long as gravitational potential energy differences are small compared with _mc_2, the effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity may be safely ignored. Read More
astrophysics
celestial mechanics
In celestial mechanics: Newton’s laws of motion …was the same as the gravitational force attracting objects to Earth. Newton further concluded that the force of attraction between two massive bodies was proportional to the inverse square of their separation and to the product of their masses, known as the law of universal gravitation. Kepler’s laws are derivable… Read More
In celestial mechanics: Tidal evolution …high orbital eccentricity leads to gravitational torques that make synchronous rotation unstable. As a result, the tides have brought Hyperion to a state where it tumbles chaotically with large changes in the direction and magnitude of its spin on time scales comparable to its orbital period of about 21 days. Read More
cosmology
In cosmology: Gravitation and the geometry of space-time The physical foundation of Einstein’s view of gravitation, general relativity, lies on two empirical findings that he elevated to the status of basic postulates. The first postulate is the relativity principle: local physics is governed by the theory of… Read More
In universe: The Copernican revolution The law of universal gravitation generalized the work of Galileo and the English physicist Robert Hooke on terrestrial gravity, asserting that two massive bodies attract one another with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of their separation distance. By… Read More
electromagnetic radiation
In electromagnetic radiation: Effect of gravitation The energy of the quanta of electromagnetic radiation is subject to gravitational forces just like a mass of magnitude m = _h_ν/_c_2. This is so because the relationship of energy E and mass m is E = m _c_2. As a consequence, light… Read More
orbital velocity
In orbital velocity …in a straight line, while gravitational force tends to pull it down. The orbital path, elliptical or circular, thus represents a balance between gravity and inertia. A cannon fired from a mountaintop will throw a projectile farther if its muzzle velocity is increased. If velocity is made high enough the… Read More
planetary rings
In solar system: Formation of ring systems Within this distance the gravitational attraction of two small bodies for each other is smaller than the difference in the attraction of the planet for each of them. Hence, the two cannot accrete to form a larger object. Moreover, because a planet’s gravitational field acts to disperse the distribution… Read More
pulsars
In spectroscopy: Methods …due to the emission of gravitational radiation. The existence of gravitational radiation was predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity but not seen directly until 2015. Read More
physics
centrifugal force
In mechanics: Centrifugal force …where it is largest, the gravitational acceleration g is about 0.5 percent smaller than at the poles, where there is no centrifugal force. This same centrifugal force is responsible for the fact that Earth is slightly nonspherical, bulging just a bit at the Equator. Read More
Coulomb force
In Coulomb force …still another basic physical force, gravitation, which though much weaker than the electric force, is always attractive and is the dominant force at great distances. At distances between these extremes, including the distances of everyday life, the only significant physical force is the electric force in its many varieties along… Read More
equivalence principle
In equivalence principle …of physics that states that gravitational and inertial forces are of a similar nature and often indistinguishable. In the Newtonian form it asserts, in effect, that, within a windowless laboratory freely falling in a uniform gravitational field, experimenters would be unaware that the laboratory is in a state of nonuniform… Read More
field theory
In weight …has a property called the gravitational field at that point, numerically equal to the acceleration of gravity at that point. Alternatively, weight is the product of an object’s mass and either the gravitational field or the acceleration of gravity at the point where the object is located. Read More
freefall
In freefall …move in a slightly different gravitational field. Earth is in free fall, but the pull of the Moon is not the same at Earth’s surface as at its centre; the rise and fall of ocean tides occur because the oceans are not in perfect free fall. Read More
