Gravitational Effects Other Than the Earth's?

Most recent answer: 05/14/2015

Q:
As mass generates gravity, every object is bound to have some gravitational force (Humans, all non living entities) but they might be very week because of the mass. Apart from Earth's gravity, where or when we could feel this gravitational force?
- vimal (age 26)
India
A:

It depends on what you mean by "feel". In the rigorous sense, your atoms feel everything in the universe. If it is to be considered as physically observable, the easiest to notice is the lunar attraction that causes tidal waves. Solar attraction causes your planet to tour around the Sun, resulting in the seasons. In the lab, it is possible to measure very small forces between objects, as is the case in .

Tunc

Just another point to add: We don't directly "feel" gravity, only differences in gravity between different parts of our body. Gravity is a special force that way, unlike any other. The tidal effects from the Moon that Tunc mentioned come from fifferences in the gravitational pull from the Moon on the nearer and farther sides of the Earth. /Mike W.


(published on 05/14/2015)