So, I learned in physics class at school in the UK that the value of acceleration due to gravity is a constant called g and that it was 9.81m/s^2. I knew that this value is not a true constant as it is affected by terrain and location. However I didn’t know that it can be so significantly different as to be 9.776 m/s^2 in Kuala Lumpur for example. I’m wondering if a different value is told to children in school that is locally relevant for them? Or do we all use the value I learned?
g = 9.80665 m/s^2 at sea level. Higher than sea level lowers the value due to GR (General Relativity).
Newtonian physics also has gravity decreasing with height, no need to get out the big guns.
say what now?
citation needed.
Newton’s law of gravitation. F = G m1*m2/r^2
Ah, I see. I thought we were talking about the constant.
G is also fixed in GR, although it’s not guaranteed to manifest in a neat relation like that in every situation because spacetime curvature has a lot of components at every point, and they interact super nonlinearly.
F=Gm1m2/r2
G is the gravitational constant, the m’s are the masses in question, and F is the force generated. The r is radius from the center of one body to the other; that is, height. If it didn’t decrease, orbits wouldn’t exist the same way and astronomers would have laughed Newton out of the room.
I could give you a link if you really want, but it’s the Newtonian gravity equation, so it’s probably just going to be “Gravity” on Wikipedia.
“Mom! Canada’s picking on me again…”