Properties of Gravitational Force
Category : JEE Main & Advanced
(1) It is always attractive in nature while electric and magnetic force can be attractive or repulsive.
(2) It is independent of the medium between the particles while electric and magnetic force depend on the nature of the medium between the particles.
(3) It holds good over a wide range of distances. It is found true for interplanetary to inter atomic distances.
(4) It is a central force i.e. acts along the line joining the centres of two interacting bodies.
(5) It is a two-body interaction i.e. gravitational force between two particles is independent of the presence or absence of other particles; so the principle of superposition is valid i.e. force on a particle due to number of particles is the resultant of forces due to individual particles i.e. \[\overset{\to }{\mathop{F}}\,={{\overset{\to }{\mathop{F}}\,}_{1}}+{{\overset{\to }{\mathop{F}}\,}_{2}}+{{\overset{\to }{\mathop{F}}\,}_{3}}+........\]
While nuclear force is many body interaction
(6) It is the weakest force in nature : As Fnuclear > F electromagnetic > F gravitational .
(7) The ratio of gravitational force to electrostatic force between two electrons is of the order of \[{{10}^{-43}}\].
(8) It is a conservative force i.e. work done by it is path independent or work done in moving a particle round a closed path under the action of gravitational force is zero.
(9) It is an action reaction pair i.e. the force with which one body (say earth) attracts the second body (say moon) is equal to the force with which moon attracts the earth. This is in accordance with Newton's third law of motion.
Note :
But if the two bodies are uniform spheres then the separation r may be taken as the distance between their centres because a sphere of uniform mass behave as a point mass for any point lying outside it.
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