Acceleration due to gravity

The acceleration which is gained by an object because of gravitational force is called its acceleration due to gravity. Its SI unit is m/s2. Acceleration due to gravity is a vector, which means it has both a magnitude and a direction. The acceleration due to gravity at the surface of Earth is represented by the letter g. It has a standard value defined as . However, the actual acceleration of a body in free fall varies with location.

 Why heavier objects do not fall faster than lighter objects 
Isaac Newton worked out that resultant force equals mass times acceleration, or in symbols, . This can be re-arranged to give .
The bigger the mass of the falling object, the greater the force of gravitational attraction pulling it towards Earth. In the equation above, this is . However, the amount of times the force gets bigger or smaller is equal to the number of times the mass gets bigger or smaller, having the ratio remain constant. In every situation, the  cancels down to the uniform acceleration of around 9.8 m/s2. This means that, regardless of their mass, all freely falling objects accelerate at the same rate.

Consider the following examples:

 Surface acceleration 
Depending on the location, an object at the surface of Earth falls with an acceleration between .

Earth is not exactly spherical. It is similar to a "squashed" sphere, with the radius at the equator slightly larger than the radius at the poles. This has the effect of slightly increasing gravitational acceleration at the poles (since the poles are closer to the centre of Earth and the gravitational force depends on distance) and slightly decreasing it at the equator.http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=310 Also, because of centripetal acceleration, the acceleration due to gravity is slightly less at the equator than at the poles. Changes in the density of rock under the ground or the presence of mountains nearby can affect gravitational acceleration slightly.http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=465

 Altitude 
The acceleration of an object changes with altitude. The change in gravitational acceleration with distance from the center of Earth follows an inverse-square law. This means that gravitational acceleration is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the center of Earth. As the distance is doubled, the gravitational acceleration decreases by a factor of 4. As the distance is tripled, the gravitational acceleration decreases by a factor of 9, and so on.

At the surface of the Earth, the acceleration due to gravity is roughly . The average distance to the centre of the Earth is .

Using the constant , we can work out gravitational acceleration at a certain altitude.

Example: Find the acceleration due to gravity  above Earth's surface.

∴ Distance from centre of Earth is .

∴ Acceleration due to gravity  above Earth's surface is .

Gravitational acceleration at the Kármán line, the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space which lies at an altitude of , is only about 3% lower than at sea level.

 References 

Category:Physics
Category:Gravitation