The Mysterious Force of Gravity Explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Of the 4 fundamental forces of nature, gravity is the most intuitive one. We experience gravity every second of our lives so it makes sense that our brains are evolutionarily equipped to intuitively grasp the effects of gravity. At least here on Earth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains what gravity is and how this mysterious force works and effects the fabric of space time. And why it effects the very nature of the universe itself. And if the question “Why” is even a good scientific question.

Neil deGrasse Tyson mentions that scientifically speaking, we pretty much understand how gravity works and that is good enough to make scientific progress and questions like why does gravity work belong to set of philosophical questions that are not necessarily useful.

So what is gravity exactly?

Gravity is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass or energy including planets, stars, galaxies, and even light gravitate toward one another.

Modern work on gravitational theory began with the work of Galileo Galilei in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In his famous experiment dropping balls from the Tower of Pisa, and later with careful measurements of balls rolling down inclines, Galileo showed that gravitational acceleration is the same for all objects. This contradicted Aristotle’s belief that heavier objects have a higher gravitational acceleration. Galileo postulated air resistance as the reason that objects with low density and a high surface area fall more slowly in an atmosphere. Galileo’s work set the stage for the formulation of Newton’s theory of gravity.

In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published Principia, which hypothesizes the inverse-square law of universal gravitation. Newton’s theory enjoyed its greatest success when it was used to predict the existence of Neptune based on motions of Uranus that could not be accounted for by the actions of the other planets.

However a discrepancy in Mercury’s orbit pointed out flaws in Newton’s theory.

The issue was resolved in 1915 by Albert Einstein’s new theory of general relativity, which accounted for the small discrepancy in Mercury’s orbit.

In general relativity, gravity is described by the geometry of spacetime and the laws of physics. According to general relativity, gravity is not a force but instead is caused by the curvature of space–time caused by matter.

Neil deGrasse Tyson give everyday examples to better understand how gravity works meaning how the very fabric of spacetime is curved by matter. In a nutshell: Space tells matter how to move and matter tells space how to curve.

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