High Impact Kete Tasks: Gravity

Gravity

Gravity or gravitation, is a natural phenomenon in which all things with mass are brought towards (Or gravitate towards) one another, including planets, stars and galaxies. It is one of the fundamental forces of the universe.

In the late 16th century, Galileo did a famous experiment involving the effects of gravity where he dropped balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He later on rolled balls down inclines, with this experiment, Galileo demonstrated and proved, that gravitational accelerates all objects at the same rate regardless of there weight.

In 1687, English mathematician Isaac Newton wrote the Principia. In this book, he wrote about the inverse-square law of gravitation. Newton said that the closer two objects are to each other, the more gravity will affect them. His theory about gravitation was used to predict the existence of the planet Neptune based on changes in the orbit of Uranus.

Newton's theory was later used to predict the existence of another planet closer to the Sun than Mercury. When this was done, it was learned that his theory was not entirely correct. These mistakes in his theory were corrected by Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Newton's theory is still commonly used for many things because it is much more simple to work with than the theory of General Relativity and is usually accurate enough for many uses.



You can see gravity when you simply throw a ball in the air or even when you jump.