CBSE-XI-Physics
11: Gravitation
- #3If heavier bodies are attracted more strongly by the earth, why don’t they fall faster than the lighter bodies?Ans : We know that acceleration due to a force on a body of mass in given by `` a=\frac{F}{m}``.
If F is the gravitational force acting on a body of mass m, then a is the acceleration of a free falling body.
This force is given as `` F=G\frac{Mm}{{R}^{2}}``.
Here, M is the mass of the Earth; G is the universal gravitational constant and R is the radius of the Earth.
∴ Acceleration due to gravity, `` a=\frac{F}{m}=\frac{GM}{{R}^{2}}``
From the above relation, we can see that acceleration produced in a body does not depend on the mass of the body. So, acceleration due to gravity is the same for all bodies.
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