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Gravity (also called gravitation) is a fundamental physical interaction that causes objects with mass to attract one another. It is characterized by an attractive force that acts over an infinite range, becoming weaker with distance. In Newtonian form, the gravitational force between two masses m and m′ separated by distance r is F = G·(m m′)/r², where G is the gravitational constant. Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions and is negligible for subatomic particles but dominates at astronomical scales, governing the motion of planets, stars, galaxies, and even the behavior of light in strong gravitational fields. Gravity can also be characterized by how it relates to mass and motion. A key idea is the equivalence principle: inertial mass (which appears in Newton’s second law) is the same as gravitational mass, and experiments have tested this equality to extremely high precision. For most practical purposes on Earth, Newton’s law provides an excellent approximation, but the more complete description is given by general relativity, where gravity is not treated as a conventional force—instead it is described by the curvature of spacetime produced by the distribution of mass and energy. In extreme cases, such as black holes, this curvature becomes so strong that nothing can escape past the event horizon.
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Gravity is a fundamental interaction that causes masses and energy to attract, drawing material objects toward each other. It has an infinite range, but its influence decreases with distance. On large, astronomical scales, gravity drives the formation and evolution of structures such as stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters, making it a primary reason the universe has its observed large-scale organization. On Earth and other planetary bodies, gravity also determines weight and is crucial for phenomena like tides, surface water waves, and many aspects of weather and biological processes. Historically, gravity was explored through early philosophical and scientific ideas, followed by major experimental work during the Scientific Revolution that established that gravitational acceleration is the same for all objects (ignoring air resistance). Newton later unified terrestrial and celestial motion with the inverse-square law, modeling gravity as an attractive force proportional to the product of two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In 1915, Einstein replaced the force picture with general relativity, describing gravity as the curvature of spacetime caused by the uneven distribution of mass and energy. General relativity reduces to Newtonian gravity in weak-field situations, but it also predicts effects such as gravitational lensing and gravitational waves, and it remains the most successful theory of gravitation so far, while efforts continue to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics.
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