Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

?
Lv 7
? asked in Science & MathematicsPhysics · 10 years ago

How do we know that everything with mass has gravity?

What experimental evidence is there for this? I am asking cos I had the idea that the attractive force of gravity could come mainly from the iron core of a planet. Maybe it's stronger than we think and it is a property of metals in a similar way to magnetism (even though it attracts everything).

Gravity is supposed to be reduced as you get closer to the centre of the earth due to an increasing percentage of mass being above you rather than below, but is there experimental evidence of this? One way to maybe test this would be to see if a 1kg weight weighs more or less in a submarine at sea level compared to at a deep ocean floor.

I've done plenty of googling but couldn't find anything.

Update:

The cavendish experiment is certainly relevant, although the use of metal weights means I am not completely satisfied.

The wiki pic about gravity and depth doesn't oppose my idea as it shows that gravity peaks at the outer core surface, which is what would happen if the core was doing most of the "pulling" as I suggested.

As for comments about the solar system, we dont know whether the sun has a metal core or not. There are some who believe it does - Standard Theory isn't without it's problems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Theoretical_probl...

Update 2:

Oh, and even contemporary scientists believe gas giants to have solid cores, and black holes are theoretical

Update 3:

VY CMa, those stars swing round a high intensity radio source and a black hole is not the only possible explanation for this. It is not proof.

6 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    10 years ago
    Favourite answer

    All this got settled between 300 and 100 years ago.

    What did you Google?

    Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E%C3%B6tv%C3%B6s_expe...

  • 10 years ago

    "What experimental evidence is there for this?"

    Centuries of measurement, starting with the motion of the planets.

    "I am asking cos I had the idea that the attractive force of gravity could come mainly from the iron core of a planet."

    But it also works for stars, which are made of hydrogen. And it works for small objects in the laboratory, which can be made of anything at all. This experiment was first done by Henry Cavendish, and I've done it myself in a freshman physics lab.

    "Gravity is supposed to be reduced as you get closer to the centre of the earth due to an increasing percentage of mass being above you rather than below, but is there experimental evidence of this?"

    The behavior can be more complicated than that. The calculation you're thinking of is done under the assumption that the density of earth is the same all the way to the center.

    Here's some experimental evidence that gravity changes with depth, compared with a couple of theoretical models (one that you're talking about, another one with linear increasing density with depth).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EarthGravityPREM...

    The experimental curve isn't measured directly since we can't go that deep. It's calculated from the behavior of seismic waves. And if you want to start questioning that, then there's a whole lot of physics of sound you're starting to question.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    10 years ago

    Because the object with mass has gravitational pull, and attracts other objects with mass.

    You can't observe it on Earth, except in laboratories, because it's gravity is much stronger than that of a pen, for example.

    In zero gravity conditions, you can observe big objects attracting other objects with their own gravity.

    It's not only the Earth and planets that have gravity.

    It doesn't come from Fe.

    If it were because of Fe, than how could black holes be the objects in space with the strongest gravitational pull?

    EDIT:

    Black holes aren't theoretical.

    Their existence is proved by observing stars near Milky Way center. Their orbits swing around apparently empty space.

    The only thing that has enough energy to bend space-time continuum like that,while emitting no light, is incredibly dense and heavy black hole.

    http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ir/GC/images/orbits3d_small....

  • ?
    Lv 4
    10 years ago

    How do you explain the motion of the earth around the sun (the sun does not have an iron or metal core)? Or the motion of moons around gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter?

  • 10 years ago

    The motion of stars and planets can be accurately predicted using gravitation.

    Also you can directly measure the force between 2 small masses with the sensitive equipment

    - see link for example.

  • 10 years ago

    Because according to the general theory of relativity, spacetime is curved by energy. And since mass and energy are transmutable, mass must also curve spacetime. The effect of this curvature created by mass/energy is gravity. Since it is "curved", things tend to "fall/get attracted" to it similar to a funnel. This is gravity at work.

Still have questions? Get answers by asking now.