• Question: Why does matter exert a gravitational force?

    Asked by umera to Emma, Jimmy, Janet, Niall, Simon on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Niall Crawford

      Niall Crawford answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Everything which has mass, has a gravitational force.

    • Photo: James Holloway

      James Holloway answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      We can tell you how it does with an analogy:
      Stuff with matter deforms space, which makes other stuff fall towards it – imagine a giant rubber sheet (space) that you put a baseball on (stuff). The baseball will make a big dent in the middle. If you put a pingpong ball somewhere else on the rubber sheet it will roll down the dent towards the baseball.
      But i can’t say why!

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