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Petrucciowns
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The universally accepted value of accleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s ^2. My question is why would an experimental value differ from the accepted value. What factors would contribute to this difference?
zcd said:Law of universal gravitation states that [tex]F=G\frac{m_{1}m_{2}}{r^{2}}[/tex]. On earth, this would translate to differences in an object's mass and altitude.
Mentallic said:The main factors are experimental errors as Idealsrule said, but the strength of gravity does differ very slightly at different points on the Earth because of the different heights to the centre of the Earth and it also depends on the composition of the matter between the surface and centre of the Earth (which also varies at different points)
RoyalCat said:If I recall correctly, some world records regarding the height of jumps were overturned because they were set at a high altitude near the equator.
Acceleration due to gravity is the rate at which the velocity of an object changes under the influence of gravity. It is commonly denoted by the symbol "g" and is approximately equal to 9.8 meters per second squared on Earth.
The formula for calculating acceleration due to gravity is g = G * M / r^2, where G is the universal gravitational constant, M is the mass of the larger object (usually a planet), and r is the distance between the two objects.
Yes, acceleration due to gravity varies on different planets because it is dependent on the mass and radius of the planet. For example, the acceleration due to gravity on Mars is approximately 3.7 meters per second squared, while on Jupiter it is approximately 24.8 meters per second squared.
As altitude increases, the acceleration due to gravity decreases. This is because the distance between an object and the center of the Earth increases with altitude, resulting in a weaker gravitational pull. However, this effect is only significant at very high altitudes, as the Earth's radius is relatively small compared to the distance to outer space.
Yes, acceleration due to gravity can be negative. This occurs when an object is moving in the opposite direction of the gravitational force. For example, when an object is thrown upwards, the acceleration due to gravity is negative as it is acting against the object's upward motion.