Why Is Gravity Considered a Fundamental Force in Physics?

[pero2912]

This is what I got after watching some documentaries: Acording to the general theory of relativity, gravity is curvature of space-time caused by the massive objects. It was explained that it is not a force in a sense that it acts between two bodies, but it curves the space and the bodies are forced to move as if the force acts upon them. If so, why is gravity considered to be one of the four fundamental forces, just like othere were bodies actually interact with each other?

 

[TurtleMeister]

I noticed that Wikipedia now refers to this concept as the fundamental interactions rather than the fundamental forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_interaction

Fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces or interactive forces, are modeled in physics as patterns of relations in physical systems, evolving over time, whose objects appear not to be reducible to more basic entities.

 

[A.T.]

If so, why is gravity considered to be one of the four fundamental forces, just like othere were bodies actually interact with each other?

It's semantics. In General Relativity gravity is not a classical force. But the effect of attraction can still be interpreted locally as an inertial force, in frames that are not falling.

But I agree that it's better to talk about "fundamental interactions" to make it more general.