Question

What is meant by gravitational force (or force of gravity )? Give its one example.

Answer 1

The gravitational force is a force that attracts any two objects with mass. We call the gravitational force attractive because it always tries to pull masses together, it never pushes them apart. In fact, every object, including you, is pulling on every other object in the entire universe! This is called Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation.

Some examples of the force of gravity include:

• The force that holds the gases in the sun.
• The force that causes a ball you throw in the air to come down again.
• The force that causes a car to coast downhill even when you aren't stepping on the gas.
• The force that causes a glass you drop to fall to the floor.
• The force that keeps the Earth and all of the planets in line in the proper position in their orbits around the sun.
• The force that propels a toddler down a slide.
• The force that causes the moon to revolve around the Earth.
• The force that keeps Jupiter's moons located around the planet.