What is Gravitational Force?

Gravitational or gravity is a force that attracts any two bodies in the universe, whether they have equal masses or not. Newton’s Law of Gravitation asserts that all objects, including oneself, attract each other. The unit of gravitational force is Newtons, denoted as N.

Study of gravitation has benefited a lot from the contributions of many well-known scientists. Early in the 17th century, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered that all objects accelerate uniformly toward the centre of the Earth. In his groundbreaking study from 1687, English mathematician Isaac Newton made the first discovery of gravitational laws.

Gravitation is considered a fundamental force as its influence on any object can be observed readily. Thus, Gravitational force acts on every object that has mass. So gravitational force is a fundamental force. Since there is no touch between the objects, the gravitational force is non-contact. Since it is focused at the centre of the orbit in which the object moves, it is centripetal. It is responsible for keeping the body’s orbit. A tug that is directed away from the centre is experienced by the rotating body. The centrifugal force is what causes this pulling. Of all the basic forces, the gravitational force is the weakest.

Let’s Read more about – Acceleration due to Gravity

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation is used to explain gravitational force. Gravitational Force is a type of Non-contact force, the gravitational force is a force in nature that is always attractive and conservative. Gravitational Force is defined as the force of attraction experienced by two or more objects in contact. Gravitational force is determined by the formula obtained from Newton’s Universal Law of Attraction, known as the Gravitational Force Formula. Our environment is surrounded by gravity. It determines how much we weigh and how far a basketball will bounce before hitting the ground when it is thrown. The force the Earth applies to you is equal to the gravitational force on Earth. The gravitational force is equal to your weight while you are at rest on or near the Earth’s surface. Also, the presence of a gravitational field is required in the heat transfer through natural convection.