Compare the gravitational attraction between objects on earth and interaction

Blaine Stein

Blaine Stein

Answered question

2022-05-09

Compare the gravitational attraction between objects on earth and interaction of celestial bodies in space. Which gravitational force is almost negligible? Why?

Answer & Explanation

Jaylon Richmond

Jaylon Richmond

Beginner2022-05-10Added 10 answers

Step 1
To compare:
Compare the gravitational attraction between objects on earth and interaction of celestial bodies in space.
We need to conclude:
Which is negligible and why.
Step 2
The gravitational atraction is given by:
F = G M m r 2
M= Mass of one body
m=mass of another body
r=distance betweenes the bodies
Step 3
Force of gravity is directly proportional to mass and inversely proportional to distance square.
Now celestial bodies has large masses. Although they are far ways from each other, still the effect of mass is large. Therefore, the gravitational attraction is larger for celestial bodies.
But on earth, although the masses are close to each other, but they have relatively very small masses as compared to the celestial bodies. Therefore the force of gravitational attraction between two bodies on earth is very small compared to the gravitational attraction between celestial bodies.
Step 4
The gravitational attraction between two objects on earth is negligible due to small masses of the objects. Because the force of gravitation is directly proportional to the masses of the objects.
As an example, let us calculate the gravitational attraction between 100 kg human and 400 kg car at a distance 1 m apart.
F g = G M m r 2 = 6.67 × 10 11 × 400 × 100 1 2 = 2.67 × 10 6 N
As we can see, the gravitational force is very small, which far less the limiting frictional force. Therefore we don't feel any gravitational force of attraction towards any object.

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