The force of attraction – Gravity

The force of attraction of Earth on Professor Mac

I’m working on the animation of Professor Mac demonstrating gravity. In the image above the gravity force acting on him is shown by the big red arrow and this is the force of attraction between Professor Mac and the planet Earth.

You may be wondering why I would talk about a force of attraction when discussing gravity. Well gravity is a force of attraction between objects. Every object with mass attracts every other object with mass. You can think of mass as the amount of matter in an object. You have mass, as does everything around you. This means that every object you can see around you now is pulling on you. And it is not just limited to the objects you can see – all objects are pulling on you even if you can’t see them. Indeed it doesn’t matter how far away they are from you, they are still pulling on you. The objects want you to be close to them. And objects include people and all living things.

Think about that. Every human on this planet is pulling on you right now, and you are pulling on them, trying to be close!

However you can’t feel these forces of attraction since gravitational force is very weak. The only time we can feel the force is when the objects are very massive, and the largest object close to you is the planet Earth. Therefore planet Earth pulls on you with considerable force and you feel this gravitational pull as your weight.

Earth as seen from space – it is massive

So if you ever feel lonely, just think about how everyone on Earth is giving you a very gentle tug, wanting you to be close, as a consequence of gravity.

Mac