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June 21, 2010 at 12:59 PM  GRAVITATIONAL FIELD AND FIELD STRENGTH Picture on the right: The arrow indicates the direction of the force that a mass will experience in the gravitational field of the Earth. Earth is being surrounded by a gravitational field. Gravitational field is a region in which a mass experiences a force due to gravitational attraction. Any object in the field will experience a force pulling it towards the Earth. The force is strongest on the surface of the Earth and gets weaker as we go farther away. The mass of the Earth creates a gravitational field around it such that any mass in the gravitational field experience a gravitational force. It is this force that keeps the Moon in Earth's orbit. Gravitational field strength, g, is defined as the gravitational force acting per unit mass on an object. Gravitational field strength, g, is a vector quantity. The direction of g at any point is the same as the direction of the gravitational force acting on a unit mass located at a point. On Earth, the gravitational field strength is usually taken to be a constant at 10N/kg. This value can be found by: gravitational field strenght = weight / mass Since we already know that weight = mass × acceleration due to gravity and therefore, acceleration due to gravity = weight / mass The gravitational field strength, g, is dependent on location. The further away the place is from the cemtre of the Earth, the smaller the value of g. *Note that gravitational field strength (in N/kg) is also known as the acceleration due to gravity. (in m/s^2). |