Question

Why is gravitational force an attractive force rather than repulsive?

Answer 1

Gravitational force:

1. According to Newton's law of gravitation, Every body attracts every other body with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
2. The gravitational force is always attractive in nature.
3. A body that has mass always attracts another body having mass and the force between them is given by Newton's law of gravitation.
4. If there were repulsive gravitational forces, it would imply that the body has negative mass which is not possible. Hence, gravitational forces are always attractive in nature.
5. The gravitational force between two masses ${\mathrm{m}}_1$ and ${\mathrm{m}}_2$ at a distance $\mathrm{r}$ is given as,

Gravitational force, ${\mathrm{F}}_{\mathrm{G}}=\mathrm{G}\frac{{\mathrm{m}}_1{\mathrm{m}}_2}{{\mathrm{r}}^2}$ where, $\mathrm{G}$ is the universal gravitational constant.

Now, we know that the mass of the objects that are taken into consideration cannot be negative in nature. Hence, the nature of the gravitational force will always be attractive and not repulsive.