What is Gravity?
Gravity is the force by which a planet or other body draws objects towards its center. It is often referred to as “a force exerted by the Earth to pull objects towards it”. However, gravity is not limited to the Earth and the objects close to it.
What is Gravitational Force?
The gravitational force is the attractive force between any two objects with non-zero mass separated by a distance.
Example: Gravitational Force
Let us understand with the help of an example, the concept of gravitational force as an attractive force between any two masses in the universe. These non-zero masses could be planets, humans, animals, etc.
Let us consider a case where we have an astronaut and an apple in outer space. Here, the astronaut will exert a gravitational pull on the apple and at the same time, the apple will also exert a gravitational pull on the astronaut.
Gravitational Force between two Objects
In the context of Earth, we generally relate gravitation with the Earth pulling objects towards itself. However, at the same time, the objects also exert a gravitational force or pull on the earth.
Let us take another example including the Earth and an astronaut. Here, the Earth is one object and the human being is another, and both exert gravitational force or a pulling force on each other.
Earth and an astronaut Pulling Each Other