The Law of Universal Gravitation or Law of Gravity

Date: 09/12/2023 Author: Antonio H.

The law of Universal Gravitation or law of gravity

This law describes how two bodies with mass interact and attract each other, and states that the intensity of the force of attraction between these two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the distance between them squared.

In other words, the stronger the mass of the bodies and the closer they are to each other, the stronger the force of attraction will be, and the stronger the force of attraction will be, decreasing with distance.

The formula is as follows:

Fórmula Ley Gravitación Universal
Ley Gravitación Universal

Where::

F is the value of the force exerted between the two bodies along the line joining them.

m1 is the mass of the body 1

m2 is the mass of the body 2

r distance between the centres of mass of the two bodies

G is a constant, the universal gravitation constant, and its value is

Valor de la constante G
The value of G is obtained experimentally and, as we can see, it is really tiny.

Calculate the force with which the Earth attracts you

If you want to know how strongly the earth attracts you, you need to know your mass in kilograms, the mass of the earth and its radius, which is the distance that separates you from the centre of mass of the planet.

If your weight is 75 kilos:

Approximate mass of the Earth: 5.98 × 10^24 kg

Average radius of the Earth: 6.37 km = 6,370,000 metres

Cálculos
Hombre sobre el planeta

Sicami Tracks - Home