What is Newton’s law of universal gravitation?

Newton’s law of universal gravitation is like a hidden message that tells all things in the universe how to pull each other, just like magnets or stretchy bands.

Imagine you have two balls: one is your toy ball, and the other is a giant beach ball. Even though the beach ball is way bigger, both still pull on each other, kind of like when you pull your friend’s hand while playing tug-of-war.

How it works

Every object has a gravitational pull, just like every kid in class has a little bit of energy. The bigger the object, the stronger its pull. So Earth pulls you down, and you also pull Earth, but Earth is so big that you don’t notice it moving!

Also, the farther apart two things are, the weaker their pull becomes. It’s like whispering across a room, you have to shout louder if you’re far away.

So Newton’s law shows us that everything in the universe pulls on everything else, just like your toy ball and the beach ball, but sometimes one side is so big it seems like the other isn’t doing anything at all!

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Examples

  1. An apple falls from a tree because Earth pulls it down.
  2. The moon stays in orbit around the Earth due to gravity.
  3. A ball thrown up comes back down because of gravity.

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Categories: Physics · gravity· physics· newton