Sunday, October 23, 2011

What is Gravity?

Gravity. Right. The imaginary thing that keeps us on the Earth and everything in order.

There is a big problem though. We know how gravity works and are finding out new and interesting things about it, but do we know why it works?

No. There are only theories of why gravity works.

Take a look at this video below that gives you an overview of what gravity is and how it works.

Warning: You might have to watch it more than once to understand everything the narrator says. The end is especially tricky because those bits of information are probably beyond the scope of your physics knowledge.



Say what?! Did that guy just say gravity also attracts massless objects? How does that work? What is a massless object? Has physics stopped working? Nope. This is a huge part of upper-level physics. Quite interesting.

So tell me, how does gravity effect your life? Can you tell me what a light-year is?

15 comments:

  1. Brandon,

    All I can say is WOW! I watched this video a few times and had no clue gravity was this complex:/ and I thought Physics 1 was complicated...haha

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  2. Gravity is a force and we understand how it works; we just aren't entirely sure what it is and where it came from, right?

    Gravity has a huge effect on our lives-we would float of into to space with out it. I doubt our universe would even exist with out it.

    A light year is a measure of distance. Scientist use it to measure really gigantic distances,like the distance between two galaxies.

    Jessica Lang

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  3. I've heard of gravity attracting light, like in a black hole, but I don't understand it. It seems like such a mysterious thing that we just always take for granted.

    What exactly is a photon, if it doesn't have mass?

    Rachel Frank

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  4. Thats pretty cool. I never understood that gravity had an affect on energy/mass this is part of what Einstein attempted to prove, correct?

    Kyle Green

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  5. KATIE KELLY:

    Ok gravity is VERY complicated. Not even sure I completely understand it because this video needs to be in slow-mo! haha..

    I don't understand why we have gravity here on earth but not in space? I couldn't even imagine what my life would be like without gravity??? It would be chaotic!!!

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  6. So I understand that gravity on earth is a force pulling towards the center of the earth. But how does that work in black holes or beyond earth?

    Tulsi Patel

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  7. I think there is so much more to learn about gravity. However, I always related gravity to objects with mass, not energy. That's crazy to think that gravity attracts massless objects.

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  8. This made me feel so dumb and confused. Wait.. what!?!? I understand that the attraction is caused between things with mass and the larger the stronger the attraction or maybe I don't. This is beyond my realm of knowledge.
    Posted by: Morgan Derner

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  9. Shandale McKay:

    I did not know that gravity was this complicated. I found it interesting that gravity attracts massless objects.

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  10. Interesting! I always thought that gravity was strictly related to mass and weight, not energy! Even though it was quick, short and very to the point, I liked this video a lot, especially the illustrations that coincides with what is being said.

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  11. I had no idea gravity attracts massless objects. Very interesting!

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  12. Very fast video but it showd the comlexity of gravity and how the mass and energy play a role.There is more to gravity then what we learn in our everyday lives.

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  13. Kelsey Irvine:

    I had no idea. I agree that the video was too fast for the concept, but it was interesting nonetheless. I don't think I could ever get upper level physics now.

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  14. I am still surprised that gravity can actually attract massless objects. This is way above my background knowledge.
    -Matt Outlaw

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  15. This just makes me happy that we are only in Physics 1 and we don't have to pretend like we understood every second of that video (because I didn't)
    -Matt Outlaw

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