Home > Physics > Newton's Law of Gravitation

Does gravity push or pull?

Answer 1

The short answer is that there is no such thing as negative mass; all massive objects attract one another, and gravity never acts to repel two objects. In contrast, charges in the electric force can be both positive and negative and can either attract or repel depending on the difference in charge.

The more complex answer is that it doesn't matter how you think of it. The formula for gravitational attraction depends on the mass of each object (#m# and #M#), the distance between them (#r#), and the gravitational constant (#G#).

#F = G(Mm)/r^2#

Gravity is the least understood of the four recognized fundamental forces of nature, and the deeper answer is that we have no idea.

Gravitational attraction is simply the tendency of massive objects to move "downhill" in this deformed space; you might think of the "hill" as pushing in a particular direction. The question then becomes, "Did the two objects pull each other? Or did the deformed space around the objects push them together?" According to some scientists, mass is simply a disruption of space and time. Deformations in space and time are massive objects. Waves in space and time are the motion of massive objects.

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Answer 2

Adam Arnold

Gravity pulls objects toward each other.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.