{"id":1695,"date":"2026-10-12T18:20:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/gravity-explained\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:20:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:20:41","slug":"gravity-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/gravity-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Gravity Explained: The Invisible Force That Holds the Universe Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Infographic:<\/figure>\n

Gravity<\/strong> is the force of attraction between objects that have mass. It keeps us on the ground, makes rain fall, holds the Moon in orbit around Earth, and keeps Earth circling the Sun.<\/p>\n

Newton’s apple<\/h2>

According to the famous story, Isaac Newton wondered why an apple falls straight down. He realised the same force that pulls the apple also keeps the Moon in orbit. In 1687 he published his law of universal gravitation<\/strong>:<\/p>

  • Every object attracts every other object.<\/li>
  • The more mass objects have, the stronger the pull.<\/li>
  • The farther apart they are, the weaker the pull. Double the distance and the force drops to one quarter.<\/li><\/ul>\n

    Einstein’s new view<\/h2>

    In 1915, Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity<\/strong> described gravity differently: massive objects bend the fabric of space and time, and other objects follow those curves. Imagine a heavy ball placed on a stretched trampoline; smaller balls roll towards it. This theory explains things Newton’s could not, such as how light bends around stars.<\/p>\n

    Mass versus weight<\/h2>
    • Mass<\/strong> is how much matter you have. It is the same everywhere.<\/li>
    • Weight<\/strong> is the force of gravity on that mass. It changes depending on where you are.<\/li><\/ul>

      A person who weighs 60 kg on Earth would weigh about 10 kg on the Moon, because the Moon’s gravity is about one-sixth of Earth’s. On Jupiter they would weigh more than twice as much.<\/p>\n

      Gravity in action<\/h2>
      • Tides:<\/strong> the Moon’s gravity pulls on Earth’s oceans, creating high and low tides.<\/li>
      • Orbits:<\/strong> satellites stay in orbit because they move sideways fast enough that they keep “falling” around Earth.<\/li>
      • Free fall:<\/strong> without air resistance, all objects fall at the same rate. An astronaut on the Moon dropped a hammer and a feather together, and they landed at the same time.<\/li><\/ul>\n

        Gravitational waves<\/h2>

        Einstein predicted that colliding massive objects create ripples in space-time. These gravitational waves<\/strong> were first detected in 2015 by the LIGO observatories.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Gravity keeps our feet on the ground and the Moon in orbit. Learn what gravity is, Newton’s and Einstein’s ideas about it, and why you would weigh less on the Moon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}