Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

Space > 3. The Solar System is Held Together by Gravity >

Define Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation: 

  • Newton’s law provides that every object in the universe attracts ever other body in the universe, with the force of attraction between them being proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the distance between the centres of their masses.
  • This is expresses mathematically in the above equation, where:
    • F = Gravitational force between the objects.
    • G = Universal gravitational constant.
    • m1 = Mass of object 1.
    • m2 = Mass of object 2.
    • d = Distance between the centres of mass of the objects.
  • The force is always attractive and is exerted equally on both masses.