What is Gravity?

Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that pulls two objects with mass toward each other. This means that the Earth pulls you down — but you’re also pulling the Earth toward you. However, because the Earth is significantly more massive than you, your pull doesn’t noticeably affect it.

Newton asked a very interesting question that led him to discover his law of gravity: “If an apple falls toward the Earth, does the Moon also do the same?”

This is essentially what’s happening — the Moon is falling toward the Earth. However, it moves fast enough that it constantly misses, and this motion is what causes it to stay in orbit.

Centuries later, Einstein came along and described gravity as the “curvature of space-time.” He saw space and time as a unified kind of fabric that mass can bend. This curvature of space-time is what gives rise to gravity, so instead of being simply a force, gravity is a property of space-time itself.

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