Gravitational Field and Universal Gravitation

Basic vocabulary and principles of gravitational fields and forces derived from the lecture notes.

Gravitational field

The region around a body having mass in which the gravitational force of the body can be experienced.

Newton's law of universal gravitation

States that any two particles of matter attracts one another with a force $F$, which is proportional to the product of their masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ and inversely proportional to the square of their distance $r$ apart.

Gravitational force equation

The mathematical expression defined as $F = \frac{Gm_1m_2}{r^2}$ where $m_1$ and $m_2$ are the masses of the two particles and $r$ is the distance between them.

Gravitational constant ($G$)

The universal constant with a value given as $6.67 \times 10^{-11}\,Nm^2\,kg^{-2}$ or $6.70 \times 10^{-11}\,Nm^2\,kg^{-2}$ depending on the measurement context.

Relationship between force and distance

Gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between objects, expressed as $F \propto \frac{1}{r^2}$.