What are gravitational force between two objects?

Gravitational force is the pull between two things because they have mass.

Imagine you and your friend are on opposite ends of a bouncy castle. You both jump onto it at the same time, you feel like it's pulling you toward each other, right? That’s kind of what happens with gravitational force. The bigger something is (like Earth), the stronger its pull is.

Like a Bigger Magnet

Think about magnets, when they’re close, they pull each other. Now imagine that instead of being magnetic, you and your friend are just really heavy. The more mass you have, the more you "magnetize" space around you. So Earth pulls you down because it has a lot of mass.

Even though you're small, you still pull Earth, but Earth is so big, it barely notices!

A Game of Tug

If you’re on one side of the bouncy castle and your friend is on the other, you both pull it toward you. That’s like how the Moon pulls the Earth a little bit, not enough to make the whole planet move, but just enough to cause tides.

So gravitational force is like a game of tug: bigger things have a stronger pull, and everything in space plays along!

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A ball falls to the ground because Earth pulls it.
  2. The Moon stays around Earth due to gravity.
  3. You feel lighter on Mars than on Earth.

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity

Categories: Physics · gravity· force· physics