Ever wonder how planets don’t crash into the sun or why astronauts are weightless in space? Let’s dive into gravity to find out!
- GRAVITY is greater when things are closer (distance decreases).
- While the sun is much bigger than Earth, we experience a greater pull from the Earth because we are closer to it than the sun.
- Gravity is reduced when distance increases.
- The farther away objects move, the less they apply a force on each other.
- GRAVITY is greater when mass (the number of atoms) increases.
- Jupiter has about 2.5 times more mass than Earth so the pull of gravity is 2.5x greater than Earth.
- GRAVITY is reduced when mass decreases.
- The moon has 1/6 the mass of Earth so it has 1/6th the gravity. A person can jump 6 times higher and throw 6 times farther with the reduced gravitational pull!
- MASS is the number of atoms in an object; more atoms means greater mass.
- This would remain the same on Earth, in space or even on other planets.
- WEIGHT is determined by how hard gravity pulls on objects.
- A smaller planet like Mercury would pull less hard on us than Earth so we would weigh less and move easier.
- A larger planet like Jupiter would pull on us harder than Earth so we would weigh more and movement would be more difficult.
- All objects are attracted to the mass of all other objects. If the Sun had it’s way, it would pull everything in the solar system into it.
- Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, is 1/3 Earth’s mass and 1/3 Earth’s distance to the sun. So it has to orbit 6 times faster to not get pulled into the sun.
- Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is 2.5x Earth’s mass and 5x Earth’s distance to the sun. So Jupiter can travel about half the speed to not fall into the sun.
- If the moon slowed down or got any closer it would come crashing down to Earth.
- While the pull of Earth on the moon keeps it from flying off into space, the moon pulls on the Earth just as hard.
- While the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth doesn’t really impact the whole planet, it does pull all of the water toward the moon.
- This bulge in the water is consistently attracted to the moon and we just spin through it.
- As far as we know, humans have only ever lived on Earth. So all of our systems are perfectly attuned for survival here.
- Our bones and muscles grow and stay strong as we move our bodies and other objects against gravity.
- To learn more about all of the body systems impacted by gravity, click the next lesson button below ->
What’s next?
I’m lost😱
I need some background information:
I need practice 🤔
This is a lot of vocab and concepts!
Let’s move on👍
What does gravity do?