Questions regarding the attractive force which exists between any two bodies of matter.
Questions tagged [gravity]
629 questions
70
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If a massive object like Jupiter flew past the Earth how close would it need to come to pull people off of the surface?
I understand this is a silly hypothetical but I'm asking for a 7 year old so please bear with me.
Imagine an interstellar stray gas giant comes flying through our solar system.
If we were not concerned that it would also steal our atmosphere and…
Yevgeny Simkin
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Is the influence of gravity instantaneous?
When I was in college, I posed to my astronomy professor a thought experiment that had been puzzling my mind for some time: "If all the matter in the Sun magically disappeared instantly, how long would it take its gravity to stop having an effect on…
Ky -
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27
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How does gravity really work
I am only 12 years old and I'm constantly wondering and trying understand how gravity really works. On YouTube everyone always talks about objects warping space time around themselves and uses the analogy of a trampoline. I still don't understand…
user11186
22
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2 answers
Do all the objects in the universe exert force on all other objects?
Do all the objects in the universe exert force on all other objects? Like a type of gravity; also, how much does it decrease as it gets farther away?
Timtech
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Are there places in the Universe without gravity?
Not sure if that is possible as I couldn't find an answer about it.
Are there places in the Universe where there are no gravitational forces?
Eric Cartman
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14
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Can two heavy objects circling around their C.M. be separated because of the speed of gravity?
Imagine two massive objects, with the same mass (M) circling around their center of mass (C.M.). Let's assume that the distance between them is 1 light hour. Don´t the two bodies get accelerated and move away from each other because they feel the…
Deschele Schilder
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Why is gravity only an attractive force?
As per the universal law of attraction, any two bodies (having some mass) experience a force of 'attraction' which is proportionate to ...and ...inverse proportionate ....
Then comes my question: Why it should be force should be of type 'attraction'…
Mea Culpa Nay
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6 answers
At what velocity would an object have to fall in order to become weightless?
Assume an object is falling toward the earth then at what velocity would the object be weightless? Taking the air resistance into account might be a factor here so lets assume no air resistance to simplify matters.
Sedumjoy
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Gravitational field for oblate spheroid?
Consider a planet, described as an oblate spheroid. Assume that the spheroid is uniformly dense but not a point source. Outside of the object, do all vectors in the gravity field point through a single point inside the planet?
medley56
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6
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Gravity is inversely proportional to the distance squared, and tidal forces to the distance cubed. Is there any phenomenon inv/prop to the distance^4?
Kinda ran out of characters for the title so had to improvise. Gravity decreases with the square of the distance due to the inverse-square law, and tides are inversely proportional to the cube of the distance since they're the difference between…
user267545
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Can Earth be spun like a magnet?
Could an asteroid or a rogue planet have enough magnetism and/or gravity to spin the Earth near the speed in which they are passing by Earth?
Muze
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What Is The Great Attractor?
I've heard that there is something called the Great Attractor which seems to have some kind of gravitational influence on objects in the Universe. Is this some kind of theoretical notion posited in order to help answer a question in Astronomy, or…
Cyberherbalist
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Is the SOI a spherical region or a oblate-spheroid-shaped region?
The Wikipedia article on Sphere of influence states that:
"A sphere of influence (SOI) in astrodynamics and astronomy is the
oblate-spheroid-shaped region around a celestial body where the
primary gravitational influence on an orbiting object…
Christo
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4
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3 answers
Why don't we orbit the center of our galaxy?
At the center of the milky way, there must be some giant mass that keeps the galaxy from just floating away from itself. So, obviously, we feel the immense gravitational pull of whatever this is. But, on a smaller scale we can see this with the…
user5400
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Why is gravity constrained to speed of light of gravity itself affects space time?
Gravity(gravitational waves)they say travels at the speed of light. But speed is distance/time. If gravity affects space-time or “time” then how can we be sure that gravity indeed travels with a quantity that gets affected by itself ?
Solo Man
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