25 Interesting Facts About Gravity

One of the fundamental forces affecting both us and everything around us is gravity, or the force of attraction as it’s sometimes called. Despite its obvious effects, it took people a long time to understand how gravity works and what it actually is. Even today, we know very little about it, and it’s far from certain that humanity will ever be able to control it.

Facts About Gravity:

1. The term “gravity” comes from the Latin word “gravitas,” which simply means “heaviness.”
2. Gravity is essential for our bodies to function properly. In its absence, bones quickly lose calcium, and despite all exercises and special diets, the loss of this valuable element can reach 1% per month.
3. The first scientist to formulate the law of universal gravitation was Isaac Newton. However, contrary to popular myth, the idea did not come to him after an apple fell on his head.
4. The weight of an object depends on the gravitational field of the object it is near. For example, a 68-kilogram person on Pluto would weigh about 4.5 kg, while on the surface of the gas giant Jupiter, they would weigh around 160.5 kg.
5. Gravity on Earth is not uniform because our planet is not a perfect sphere, and its mass is distributed unevenly. For example, gravity is slightly weaker at the equator than at the poles.
6. After spending a long time in orbit, astronauts sometimes find it challenging to readjust to gravity. They simply forget that objects have weight and will fall if released into the air.
7. Some bacteria, like Salmonella, become much more active and therefore more dangerous in the absence of gravity.
8. Spiders spin spherical webs in the absence of gravity.
9. Modern astrophysicists believe that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their center, possessing immense gravity. The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, according to scientists’ calculations, has a mass equivalent to 3 million solar masses.
10. Black holes have such powerful gravity that nothing can escape them—not even light.
11. In theory, humans could live on planets where gravity is no more than three times stronger than on Earth. Beyond that, blood circulation to the brain would be disrupted, leading to irreversible consequences.
12. Because the gravity on Mars is much lower than on Earth, if Mars were ever colonized, children born and raised on the red planet would be significantly taller than Earthlings but physically weaker.
13. Gravity determines the maximum height of mountains, beyond which they would collapse under their own weight. On Earth, mountains cannot be taller than about 15 kilometers from base to peak.
14. Although gravity on the Moon is about six times weaker than on Earth, objects there fall faster due to the absence of an atmosphere and, consequently, air resistance.
15. The gravity on Mercury is almost equal to the gravity on Mars—0.37 versus 0.378 m/s², respectively.
16. If our Sun were suddenly to become a neutron star, its gravity would be so strong that there could not be any mountains, or even elevations higher than 5 millimeters.
17. In the absence of gravity, the flame of a candle is not yellow but blue, and it burns in all directions, forming a spherical fireball.
18. Carbonated beverages are dangerous to drink in the absence of gravity because gases distribute differently in the body in microgravity, which can be hazardous.
19. Even in outer space, gravity does not completely disappear—there is always microgravity. Every object is influenced by others, such as the Sun or our own galaxy.
20. To escape Earth’s gravitational well, an object needs to reach a speed of 11.2 kilometers per second.
21. Gravity is not related to weight. If you drop two objects of different weights but the same size from a height, they will hit the ground simultaneously.
22. One of the largely unexplored cosmic anomalies is gravitational lenses, regions in space where gravity is distorted. Gravitational lenses have allowed scientists to observe many incredibly distant galaxies.
23. Gravity affects objects at any distance, but the farther away an object is, the weaker the force.
24. A simple magnet the size of a fingernail can easily overcome the force of Earth’s gravity by sticking to an iron object.
25. Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces in modern physics, and it is the weakest of them all.