Gravity

Though it plays a major role in our everyday lives, we seldom stop to think of what it is that holds us down to this earth; gravity. Whenever I think of gravity, the same questions never fail to come to mind. What exactly is gravity? Could human life possible go on without gravity? How exactly does gravity work in terms of numbers and formulas? How was gravity truly discovered and defined, and by whom? Gravity is universal, and it not affects earth and its inhabitants, but also the entire nebulous of stars and planets.

Gravity is the force that pulls all things toward the center of the earth. Gravity holds your body to the ground, because earth’s mass secrets a pull on your body. There have been many theories as to what gravity truly is. Albert Einstein thought it was what happens when space itself is curved or wrapped around a mass, such as a star or planet. (Laton, 2012) This would explain how everything within that curve falls into that dip. This explanation, though still possessing some lingering questions, is the most accurate and reasonable to date. (Myers, 2011) Gravity holds your body to the ground, because earth’s mass secrets a pull on your body.

Without gravity, human life would obviously be nigh impossible to live. Think about it; we could no longer drive, or run, or even, to some extents, eat. Everything would just float off into the atmosphere with the slightest of pushes. Essentially, gravity is not only what allows us humans to live our trivial lives, but it also keeps the earth from exploding into flames, believe it or not. Earth, along with every other planet in our solar system in caught within the Sun’s MASSIVE gravitational pull. Can be of that fact, is how we have seasons. Earth, along with the other planets, is constantly rotating around the sun, all due to its pull.

The moment you, or any other object, jumps or is tossed into the air, gravity brings you back down. There are a few formulas commonly used for gravity, but the formula often used is (F = Gm1m2/r2). The formula derives from Newton’s Law of universal gravitation, which states that the gravitational force in the midst of two objects mirrors and is proportional to the mass of each. The formula more commonly known but the younger audience is (g = GM/r2) whereas M is earth’s mass and r is its radius. There are many other formulas for gravity, but they are far too complex and daunting for me to begin to comprehend.

Gravity was discovered 3 centuries ago by a physicist and mathematician that went by the name of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas day 1642 in Woolsthorpe. Newton completely altered the state of physical science with his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation (Jacobs, 2003). He discovered that there is a certain force, in which we termed gravity, which is essential to change the speed or direction of something that is moving.

I’m sure you know of his story with the apple falling upon his head. He came to the conclusion that gravity is what brought that apple down upon his head. Oddly enough, he wrote the law of gravity after a bit of research on the subject. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1667, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. He remained at the university, lecturing in most years, until 1696. Of these Cambridge years, in which Newton was at the height of his creative power, he singled out 1665-1666 (spent largely in Lincolnshire because of plague in Cambridge) as "the prime of my age for invention". During two to three years of intense mental effort he prepared Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) commonly known as the Principia, although this was not published until 1687.

Newton’s law of gravitation is the he principle that expresses the force of gravitational attraction between two bodies as a function of their mass and their distance (Mifflin, 2005) . It is when two particles attract each other with forces directly proportional to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between themExpressed mathematically, F = Gm1m2/d2 where F is the force in Newtons, m1 and m2 are the masses of the bodies in kilograms, G is the gravitational constant, and d is the distance between the bodies in meters. Newton's Principle of Gravitation is an example of an inverse square law. It is also called the law of universal gravitation.

In conclusion, gravity is one of the many fabrics that make living possible. Not only for us, but for the planets in our Solar System as well, assuming they are sentient. We’ve built and constructed many things that not only rely on gravity, but make heavy use of it as well. Cars, Houses, water plants, and so forth. All of which humans have made great uses of. If it were not for Newton, we would probably not have as many gravity useful things as we would now. We’d probably not have the slightest idea as to how it even worked, let alone build something that makes use of it. I’m sure many lingering questions about gravity will be answered in due time. And when that happens enough, who knows what man will construct from his newly gained knowledge.