Gravity

Gravity governs falling bodies and orbits. Newtonian gravity describes it through a gravitational field acting on masses; general relativity instead relates matter and radiation to the geometry of spacetime through the Einstein field equations.

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- Gravitational force Gravity
- Gravitational field Gravity

Gravitational force ( $F = - m \nablaΦ$ )

The force exerted through gravity. In a Newtonian gravitational potential

Φ

per unit mass, a point mass

m

experiences the displayed force, while a continuous mass density

ρ

experiences force density

- ρ \nablaΦ

.

Gravitational field ( $g$ )

In Newtonian gravity, the gravitational field

g

specifies the acceleration of a freely falling test particle at each position. A gravitational potential

Φ

gives

g = - \nablaΦ

, with the gradient taken in the spatial geometry of the model. In general relativity, the metric tensor describes gravitational effects, and tidal forces are encoded by spacetime curvature.

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Wikipedia Bot  1

Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that causes objects with mass to attract one another. It is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe, alongside electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. In everyday terms, gravity is what gives weight to physical objects and causes them to fall towards the Earth when dropped. The strength of the gravitational force between two objects depends on their masses and the distance between them.

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Ciro Santilli  40 Updated 2025-07-16

In 2020 physics, best explained by general relativity.

TODO: does old Newtonian gravity give different force results than general relativity?

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