Gravity Lesson

Imagine a gigantic 3-D grid
around everything.

Every object attracts every other object by displacing the space-time 3-D grid around itself. The more massive the object, the more it will bend the grid. So, the more gravity it has.

​What is gravity?

Multiple Choice

Gravity can be visualized as a

• zucchini

• 3-D grid

• spiral

• plate of nachos

Drag and Drop

Gravity is ​

Placeholder

when objects have more mass and when objects are ​

Placeholder

.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

stronger

closer together

weaker

farther away from each other

Gravity is a force of attraction.

The closer two objects, the more gravitational pull between them.

Multiple Select

What's different in outer space vs the gravity well demonstration? Check all that apply.

• There's no friction to slow down the objects in space.

• You have to imagine the objects bending space-time in 3-D, not just on a single stretchy surface.

• You need to imagine the objects slowing down on their own.

• The bigger the object, the more it distorts space-time.

  This answer is NOT correct. It's the more MASS an object has, not the bigger it is.

​Einstein's theory of gravity, known as "general relativity," proposes that gravity is not a force, but rather a curvature of spacetime caused by the presence of mass and energy, meaning massive objects like stars and planets warp the fabric of spacetime around them, causing smaller objects to follow curved paths, which we perceive as gravity; essentially, "matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how to move.

All of those three examples in the picture have more or less the same diameter in space-time, yet vastly different wells/gravitational pulls.

The diameter on the surface is what matters, because this is where we live - like having a deep water well in your outdoor garden. Anything beyond the surface diameter won't be affected much, just like you can run around the garden and not fall into the well.

Stay away from the well, and you will be fine.

A caveat here is that gravity is a forever reaching effect.

​