Examples / Physics
Explain gravity to a 10th grade student
Drawn and explained by Sketchwise from this one question.
The explanation, step by step
1. Why the apple falls
Hi! Today let's find out why an apple always falls down, never up. When the apple lets go, something pulls it straight toward the ground. That pull is gravity: every mass attracts every other mass.
2. Newton's rule
Newton found a simple rule for how strong that attraction is. Bigger masses pull harder, so doubling one mass doubles the force. But distance matters more: double the distance, and the pull drops to a quarter.
3. The Moon is falling
The same gravity reaches all the way out to the Moon. I'm always falling toward Earth, but I also fly sideways very fast. So I keep falling around Earth instead of into it. That's an orbit!
4. Hammer and feather
On the Moon there's no air, so let's drop a hammer and a feather. They land together! Gravity speeds up every object equally, whatever its mass. On Earth, falling things gain 9.8 meters per second, every second.
5. One force everywhere
Pull back, and gravity is what holds every planet around the Sun. From falling apples to circling planets, it's one force: mass attracting mass!
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