Question

An apple moves towards the Earth when there is nothing holding it up, due to Earth's gravitational force. We know that the apple also exerts an equal force on Earth. Why doesn't Earth move towards the apple?

• A. The mass of apple is negligibly small compared to that of the Earth.
• B. The acceleration produced by the fruit on the Earth would be negligible.
• C. Falling apple produce more acceleration.
• D. Acceleration produced by the fruit and Earth is same.

Answer 1

Answer: (A), (B)

The correct options are
A The mass of apple is negligibly small compared to that of the Earth.
B The acceleration produced by the fruit on the Earth would be negligible.

The earth and the apple pull each other with the same force.
The acceleration due to the force is given by
$a=\frac{F}{m}$ where F is the force and m is the mass of the object.
Since the apple has a much smaller mass, the acceleration it experiences is significantly higher when compared to the earth. Also, the mass of Earth is significantly larger. Hence, the acceleration it experiences is very small in magnitude. Thus, Earth doesn't move towards the apple.