Question

The force of gravity makes the sun to attract the earth toward it,but why the earth is not getting attracted towards the sun,instead it is rotating around the sun.why? Give reason.

Answer 1

The earth is constantly trying to fall into the sun, but it keeps missing. That is essentially what an orbit is. The sun exerts an attractive force on the earth, accelerating the earth directly towards the sun. This acceleration is constantly taking place. However, the earth also has some sideways momentum (perpendicular to the direction towards the sun). So as it falls towards the sun, it also moves to the side. As long as that sideways motion is enough to "side-step" the sun, the earth will orbit instead of crashing.